Telling Stories Opens Doors
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MFA in Documentary Film
The MFA in Documentary Film offers students an immersive and challenging hybrid 2-year terminal degree program with online and on-campus classes.
Applications Open on September 15, 2022!
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MA in Sports Media & Storytelling
The MA in Sports Media & Storytelling offers students an intensive hybrid 1-year degree program with online and on-campus classes.
Applications Open on September 15, 2022!
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Most Recent
Visiting Filmmakers & Instructors
Each semester, the Documentary Film Program brings in award-winning filmmakers to teach, mentor, and exhibit their work.
Learn more about our most recent visitors: Visiting Instructor David Cassidy and Visiting Filmmaker Hemal Trivedi.
News & Events
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Berra and Cassidy Earn Emmy Nominations!
August 2, 2022
We love it when we see familiar names in the list of Emmy nominees! Congratulations to David Cassidy, Cabin Creek Films Senior... Read More »
Zaluski Featured in Winston-Salem Journal
July 24, 2022
Check out this feature in the Winston-Salem Journal on Associate Teaching Professor Chris Zaluski.
The article highlights the... Read More »
Tai Captures PitchFest Win!
April 24, 2022
Congratulations to DFP 2nd year student Mier Tai for capturing top honors with her pitch of Becoming the Lion in the 11th Annual... Read More »
A CHOICE OF WEAPONS: INSPIRED BY GORDON PARKS produced by DFP alum Monica Berra (MFA '16) is nominated for three awards at the 43rd Annual News & Doc Emmys!
The film, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in June 2021 and is now streaming on @HBOMAX, profiles iconic portrait photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks in his career shooting everything and everyone from fashion to Malcolm X. It is nominated for a News & Doc Emmy in the following categories: Best Documentary, Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary, and Editing: Documentary.
Tune in to the #DOCEMMYS on September 29 to cheer on Monica and the rest of the A CHOICE OF WEAPONS team.
Did you know that North Carolina is home to the biggest American Indian population east of the Mississippi River?
Head to @aperturecinema at 7:30 PM tomorrow, Tuesday, August 9, for a FREE screening of NATIVE PATHWAYS, a short documentary edited by Brad Dillard (MFA '19), all about Native Pathways to Health (NPTH).
The NPTH project builds upon existing community-academic partnerships with North Carolina’s AI communities and the University of NC American Indian Center, and seeks to leverage the community’s unique strengths to better understand and address tribal health priorities. The tribal communities that partnered (9) in the Native Pathways to Health Project included: Coharie Tribe, Haliwa-Saponi Tribe, Lumbee Tribe of NC, Meherrin Tribe, Metrolina Native American Society, Occaneechi Band of Saponi Nation, Triangle Native American Society, Sappony Tribe, and Waccamaw-Siouan Tribe.
In Phase 1, NPTH partnered with adults and youth from NC tribes and urban Indian organizations to form a Tribal Health Ambassador Program. Tribal Health Ambassadors (THAs) collaborated with the research team to assess health in their communities: Adult THAs led talking circles (a sacred approach for engaging in discussion); Youth THAs designed projects following a Youth Participatory Action Research approach. Findings from these projects and gathering are currently informing the development of a community survey to document health needs, priorities, and assets; reveal unrecognized areas of concern, and inform the development of tribal-led action plans.
Our thoughts are with the members of the @Appalshop community in Whitesburg, Kentucky. We join them in mourning the loss of their home and the priceless media archive of Appalachian history and culture they have created since the opening of their doors as a storytelling training ground in 1969.
As they work tirelessly to preserve what remains and to document the ongoing impact of the flooding on the residents of Eastern Kentucky, we want to help spread the word on the many ways you can provide a helping hand to their community. Please check out appalshop.org/floodsupport
📸 Taylyn Kincer, Charlie Calhoun
Spotted! 👀 @luminous.documentary from award-winning filmmaker and DFP alum Sam Smartt (MFA '13) screening as a finalist for Best Documentary Feature at this week's 2022 UFVA Conference at SUNY Fredonia.
Visit www.luminous-film.com to learn more about the film and screening opportunities.
Check out this feature in the Winston-Salem Journal @wsjournalnow on Associate Teaching Professor Chris Zaluski.
The article highlights the success of his latest film, @TheirsIsTheKingdom, and his path to becoming a documentary filmmaker.
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“When I started making documentaries, I was very focused on removing myself as the filmmaker from the final film. I wanted the subjects’ stories to be the driving force of the film, and I didn’t want to manipulate that in any way. I’ve come to realize, however, that any film – documentary, especially – is riddled with manipulation, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think this is where my journalism background – this desire to always be objective – had to be broken a little bit.
In my most recent film – “Theirs Is The Kingdom” – I tried to be more overt with the editing as well as more hands-on with directing the scenes during the actual production. I like the balance I struck between a very stylized scene mixed with a more gritty, traditional scene.
Another way I’m constantly evolving as a filmmaker is through my teaching. I teach in the @WFUniversity Documentary Film Program, and it’s always refreshing to see what emerging filmmakers are watching and creating – and then how those changing interpretations of “documentary” are influencing the field.”
#WFUdocfilm