What a meaningful and magical night celebrating the 30th anniversary of the iconic film HOOP DREAMS!  🎬🏀👏
 
Much like the film itself, basketball served as the entry point for a conversation centered on the importance of family, community, and a willingness to approach life with an open mind and heart. It was a true privilege to witness the bond forged between HOOP DREAMS stars William Gates and Arthur Agee @mr.hoopdreams, and the film’s producer and director of cinematography Peter Gilbert @pmgilbs
 
A huge thank you to: 
 
🏀DFP Creative Director Peter Gilbert, DFP Program Director Chris Zaluski @chriszaluski, and MA Program Coordinator Chris Sheridan @cjsheridan22 for organizing this special event. 
 
🏀National Sports Media Association Executive Director Dave Goren @davegoren1 for moderating such a powerful conversation. 
 
🏀WFU Head Baseball Coach @wakebaseball and Get in the Game @gitg4change founder Tom Walter for joining the discussion and offering insights into how college sports have evolved since the film’s release and the important role coaches play in athletes` lives. 

🏀DFP MA students Nyja Cauley and Pete Tkac for lending their talents to the organizing and promotion efforts.
 
🏀And, of course, a massive thank you to our incredible audience for showing up and celebrating this legendary film and the lasting impact it continues to have. 
 
We couldn’t have done this without the support of Get in the Game @gitg4change, The Humanities Institute @wfuhumanities, Wake the Arts @wakethearts, The Program for Leadership & Character @leadershipandcharacter, LAM Anthropology Museum @lammuseum and the Communication Department  @wakecomm.
 
#wfudocfilm #wakethearts #hoopdreams30thanniversary

The Documentary Film Program and Get In the Game @gitg4change invite you to a special event honoring the 30th Anniversary of HOOP DREAMS, a groundbreaking film hailed by Roger Ebert as “the great American documentary” on Wednesday, March 19th at 6:00 p.m. at the Porter Byrum Welcome Center. 🏀📽👏

The film, produced by DFP Creative Director Peter Gilbert @pmgilbs, follows the lives of two basketball players from inner-city Chicago, Arthur Agee @mr.hoopdreams and William Gates, as they navigate the journey from middle school to high school to big time college basketball.

Agee, Gates, and Gilbert will join moderator Dave Goren @davegoren1 in a candid, revealing conversation on the making of the film, the issues it tackles, and the resonance it holds 30 years later. The three will share their favorite parts of the film and discuss how the film helped shape and advance the conversation of race and sport in America – a conversation we are still navigating today.

A reception will follow the event.

Thank you to our event sponsors! Humanities Institute @wfuhumanities, Wake The Arts @wakethearts, Program for Leadership & Character @leadershipandcharacter, LAM Anthropology Museum @lammuseum, and the Communication Department.

We look forward to seeing you there!

#wfudocfilm #getinthegamelivethegamechangethegame #wakethearts #leadershipandcharacter #wfuhumanities #lammuseum #wfugrad #hoopdreams

Start your week off right with a powerful screening! Make plans to attend SICK-AMOUR: A LOVE STORY, directed by Art Professor Joel Tauber @joel.tauber on Monday at 5:30 at Scales Fine Arts Center, Room 102. 🌳SICK-AMOUR: A LOVE STORY (2024) celebrates the forlorn and lonely Tree that Joel Tauber adopts in the middle of a giant parking lot in front of the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California.

The 77-minute documentary—which was filmed over the course of 18 years—paints a multi-faceted portrait of the Tree via a series of interviews with experts in different fields while it chronicles Tauber’s efforts to improve the Tree’s life.

Don`t miss this moving story of devotion, nature, and resilience. 🌱
A reception will follow the screening in the Scales lobby.

#wfudocfilm #wakethearts

📽️ Join us for the DFP Alumni Showcase!

We’re excited to present WE ARE, BECAUSE WE WERE, a documentary directed by Rodney Wilds (MFA ’23), on Tuesday, February 18, at 6:00 p.m. in the ZSR Auditorium.

This 40-minute film takes viewers on a journey through the Winston-Salem African American Archive, highlighting the vital contributions of the Black community to the city’s growth and the archive’s mission to preserve this rich history.

✨ Stay after the screening for a special Q&A with director Rodney Wilds, film participants and members of the Winston-Salem African American Archive.

📅 Save the date and join us for an evening of storytelling, history, and community!

#winstonsalemafricanamericanarchive #wfudocfilm #wakethearts #wfugrad #blackhistorymonth

Another great night of conversation and connection at our annual DFP/UNCSA mixer! Doc Film and UNCSA film music composition students spent the evening getting acquainted and exploring possible collaborations. 🎥🎶

There have been a number of DFP films scored by @UNCSA students, and we hope to keep adding to that list in the coming years!

Thanks to Frazier Smith @fsmithmusic and Professor Chris Heckman for helping us foster these creative connections!

#wfudocfilm #wfugrad #uncsafilmmusic #wakethearts

Thank you Jonathan Lacocque, @coatofarmstv co-director of O PIONEERS, for generously sharing your filmmaking experiences and expertise with the DFP students!

The conversation was a fabulous lead-in to the @southerncircuit screening of O PIONEERS at @aperturecinema.

Another huge shoutout to @southerncircuit and @aperturecinema for bringing an incredible lineup of films to our community and for bringing talented filmmakers to our classrooms!👏

#wfudocfilm #southerncircuittourofindependentfilmmakers #aperturecinema #wakethearts

We are looking forward to the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers screening of O PIONEER on Wednesday, February 5 at 7:00 p.m. at a/perture cinema.📽🙌

DFP students also have the opportunity to meet and engage with co-director Jonathan Lacocque in the Doc II Storytelling class on Wednesday from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM.

O PIONEER reckons with and redefines the American pioneer. This documentary follows three West Virginians—a blacksmith, a seamstress, and a hospital chaplain—as they creatively navigate hardship and call us to champion the pioneer within.
Narrated by lyricist and musician Kaïa Kater, the film weaves verité moments with archival footage, poetic vignettes, and dream-like animation—as Tim Hibbs, Nellie Rose Gundersen Davis, and James Morley humbly answer their calls to pioneer a way forward.

We hope to see you there!

For more about the film and its directors, visit: https://aperturecinema.com/movies/o-pioneer/

#opioneerfilm #wfudocfilm #wakethearts #aperturecinema #southerncircuittourofindependentfilmmakers

RiverRun International Film Festival presents a free Indie Lens Pop-Up screening of FREE FOR ALL: THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 🎥📚👏

The screening is on Monday, February 3 at 6:00PM at the Forsyth County Central Library Auditorium, 660 W. 5th Street.

FREE FOR ALL: THE PUBLIC LIBRARY tells the story of the quiet revolutionaries who made a simple idea happen. From the pioneering women behind the “Free Library Movement” to today’s librarians who service the public despite working in a contentious age of closures and book bans, meet those who created a civic institution where everything is free and the doors are open to all.

A discussion will follow the screening with the following panelists:

📗Meghan Webb, Instruction & Outreach Librarian, Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Wake Forest University

📘Wanda Brown, Director of Library Services, C.G. O’Kelly Library, Winston-Salem State University

📙Yolanda Bolden, Library Director, Forsyth County Public Library

The event is free, but RSVP is requested

#indielenspbs #forsythcountylibrary #riverruninternationalfilmfestival #wfudocfilm #wakethearts

We are delighted to share the news that Stanford University will host the world premiere of Meg Daniels’ @meganqdaniels latest film, I’m Still Here, Love. 👏

The film offers an in-depth look at how social media platforms, savvy politicians, unqualified medical professionals, and religious leaders capitalized on disinformation to spread fear and make a profit off desperate, scared people who questioned the reality of COVID-19 and the validity of the vaccine.

The screening will take place on February 18 at the historic, newly renovated Guild Theater. A Q & A will follow with film participants @jess_marie1023, Lydia Dorsey, and Meg.🎥🎞

You can learn more about the film at: http://imstillherelovefilm.com/

#wfudocfilm #wfualumni #wakethearts

You know it’s another successful end to the fall semester when the first-year students are sporting their new DFP hats! 👏

We had a fabulous “Finals Day” with our first year MFA and MA students. The students pitched thesis ideas in the morning, screened their observational short films in the afternoon and earned a hat for all of their hard work! 🎥 🎞️🧢

Have a safe, happy, and restful Winter Break! We’ll see you in the New Year! ❄️

#wfudocfilm #wfugrad #wfuwakethearts

Congratulations to Austin Price (MFA ’24) @of_price_and_men on successfully defending his thesis film, “American as Apple Pie”! 👏

Austin’s archival based film explores the role of food in American politics revealing the “recipes” politicians use to connect with voters. 🎥🍕🍻

We are looking forward to screening the film during our graduation thesis showcase in May!

#wfudocfilm #dfpgraduate #wfugrad

Applications for the 2025 Southern Exposure Film Fellowship are now open!👏

Now in its 13th year, the Southern Exposure Film Fellowship program provides a challenging learning experience to exceptional film students and emerging filmmakers from across the country seeking to explore and develop their talent as environmental advocates through nonfiction storytelling. This innovative summer fellowship equips students with the skills, equipment, content knowledge and contacts to create authentic, engaging, inspiring films intended to raise public awareness about important issues facing Alabama’s environment — from the mountains to the coast.📽🏔🌊

Learn more and apply here: https://alabamarivers.org/se2025

#southernexposurefilmfellowship #southernexposurefilms #wfudocfilm #environmentalfilmmaking #documentaryfellowship

Thank you, @rodrigo_dorfman, director of BULLS AND SAINTS, for sharing your filmmaking journey with the DFP students! It was the perfect way to wrap up the fall season of the @southerncircuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers.🎥👏

We greatly appreciate the partnership between @southerncircuit and @aperturecinema, which brings such an incredible lineup of films to our community and these talented filmmakers into our classrooms.

We can’t wait for the spring season!

#wfudocfilm #southerncircuit #aperturecinema #arthousecinema

Fieldwork and teamwork in action! 🎥 Professor of Practice Peter Gilbert and DFP students are working with members of @hes_wfu to share the story of TOPS—The Osteoarthritis Prevention Study.

Led by Dr. Steve Messier, this multi-center clinical trial investigates the effectiveness of a combined intervention—dietary weight loss, exercise, and weight-loss maintenance—in preventing knee osteoarthritis among women.

@wfuniversity Cross school collaboration at work! 👏

#wfudocfilm #wfugrad #TOPSStudy #OsteoarthritisPrevention #healthandexercisescience

Major shoutout to MFA student Sheridan Coats for bringing the festive Halloween vibe to the DFP this week and turning each day into an entertaining character reveal! 🎃👻

From the Cheetah Girls to the Mighty Ducks, Disco Diana Ross, Princess Diaries, Red Riding Hood, and Legends of the Hidden Temple—Sheridan brought the ultimate costume game this week. Love the creativity and commitment to the Halloween spirit!🧡👏

#HalloweenHero #CostumeChampion #halloweencostume #spookyseason #happyhalloween #dfpspirit