The Chronicle

Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: Recess
Last update: 10/25/07 at 8:01 AM EST

Media Credit: IREM MERTOL Christie Herring visited Duke as part of the Engaging Documentary series.

Independent documentary filmmaking is an expanding part of the Duke-Durham community.

The Center for Documentary Studies recently invited documentary filmmaker and Christie Herring, Trinity '96, to discuss her career in the field as part of a new series, Engaging Documentary: Community Values and Artistic Visions. Having studied at both CDS and the Film/Video/Digital department, Herring has gone on to become a successful representative of a relatively obscure field.

"I first started learning about film production here at Duke," Herring said. "After I started, I took as many film classes as I could."

Herring completed her first documentary Waking in Mississippi just over a decade ago and recently completed her latest work, Bodies and Souls. Waking in Mississippi deals with race relations in Herring's hometown of Canton, Mississippi, Miss.; Bodies and Souls focuses on the state of health care in the town of Jonestown, Miss.

"I guess I just [couldn't] totally leave. Waking and Bodies and Souls are both in Mississippi, and I have a couple of upcoming projects that will take me back there again," Herring said.

"I prefer the shorter [film] format, especially for putting the video online. Online video is huge right now," Herring said.

In addition to guest lectures, CDS offers courses for undergraduates, post-graduates and members of the Durham community. Besides its functions as an educational facility, the CDS serves as a focal point for the Durham community of independent filmmakers.

Charles Thompson, education and curriculum director for the CDS, said that the Center functions as a foundation of community for independent filmmakers.

Thompson added that there is a strong community of filmmakers in North Carolina, with Durham particularly unique as a center of independent filmmaking.

"We have a pride and awareness of being in Durham-it's not a Mecca for filmmaking like Los Angeles or New York, but Durham is very special," Thompson said. "We want Durham to be a unique and separate environment for filmmakers."

Durham is host to the annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, which, according to Thompson, is the largest documentary-only film festival in the world.

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