Take Four

I. Researching...

Although many Duke students may not notice it on their way across the railroad tracks on Swift Avenue, the large white house almost hidden down West Pettigrew street has been home to some of the finest documentary work in the country for over a decade. Founded in 1989, the Center for Documentary Studies has had a hand in everything from documentary photography and filmmaking to oral history, folklore and writing, all with an eye toward using this work to promote education and change.

According to their website, the center supports "the active examination of contemporary society, the recognition of collaboration as central to documentary work, and the presentation of experiences that heighten our historical and cultural awareness." To help further this goal, the center offers academic courses available to both Duke students and community members, houses a gallery on its ground floor which routinely displays innovative documentary work, prints books through its own publishing program, sponsors research and fieldwork and presents annual documentary film festivals showcasing the work of both local and international filmmakers.

CDS also involves itself in a host of community-based projects. The "Literacy Through Photography" program's goal is to help Durham public school teachers and students integrate photography into their classrooms as a tool for observation and a catalyst for creative writing. The center's "Document Durham" program also supports community-based efforts toward education and exploration. "Behind the Veil" examines the lives of African American people in the South during the time of Jim Crow laws, and "Indivisible" is part of a nationwide effort to document grassroots social change.

If you want to start seeing the world in a frame, check out these wise words from Doctor Charles Thompson. In this exclusive Recess interview, the Head of Education at CDS dishes about community interaction, reality TV and why even you pre-med kids should check out the big white house on Pettigrew Street.

Recess: Most Duke students involved at CDS are only just starting to discover the field of documentary work. When did you get involved with it?

Doctor Thompson: In one way, I started back when I was a community organizer in the 1980s, before I decided to go back to school. My degree is in Religious Studies but I incorporated field work into my research--that's how we define what doc. studies is. If you go out and learn from experience in a community, then you're doing documentary work, particularly if you use some sort of technology like a tape recorder or a camera or a video camera to record experiences and to reinterpret them.

And what kinds of Duke students can go out into the community and do documentary field work?

All kinds of people--I like to say, "From anthropology to zoology"--who are interested in getting out into the community can incorporate documentary skills.... We have a course, for example, called "Children and the Experience of Illness," that's probably very moving for people who are going into medicine because they're taking something that seems clinical and making it real. We have another course called "Documentary Approaches to Nature Studies," and it teaches students to take a camera and develop a way to interpret information and bring it back to the community.

Duke undergraduates sometimes think of this place as its own planet. How do the courses at CDS help us burst the Duke bubble?

Well, we're a little bit off campus and across the tracks, and we are a little bit more accessible to the Durham community, so we like to think of ourselves as having one foot in the rest of the world. We reach outside of the heart of Durham, too, and we have students going into other countries to do their work internationally after they graduate.... We have a program called the Hines Fellowship, named after Louis Hines, the famous documentary worker who exposed child labor practices, and it allows graduates to work on a project, usually relating to children, on an international level.

Most Recess readers are pretty film savvy. Why should they come check out the film festivals at CDS instead of going to see Lord of the Rings for the fourth time?

I like to think that by watching a documentary film, you're glimpsing another person's real life for one day. There's still the filmmaker's creativity, and we do have an invisible script, whether we admit it or not--we all have an agenda, but I like to think of documentary work as letting the camera roll in a way that's not directing what happens, it's just following events.

We're never going to experience all that everyone else experiences, so a documentary film is really a way to see through someone else's eyes and maybe gain a new understanding of how other people, or other cultures, organize their information and meaning.... And that can help us make sense of our own notions of meaning.

What's the difference between a good documentary film and a good episode of The Bachelor?

I think at the very basis, documentary work and reality TV are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Documentary work is about enhancing understanding between human beings, and reality TV is not only about pitting people against each other and looking at the worst of people, but it's also making that into a spectacle and a spectator sport. A large goal of documentary work is to create understanding, and not to laugh derisively at someone's faults or shortcomings, but to create bridges across cultures.

III. Presenting...

January 10 -- March 30

The CDS Gallery will be displaying "Dream Street --W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Photographs." This photo essay on 1950s Pittsburgh represents the work of one of the century's greatest documentary photographers. To complement the exhibition, the CDS is also displaying "Our Streets: Photographic Portraits of the Evolving Triangle," a photo essay inspired by Smith's work which features a variety of local photographs. The opening reception for this exhibition and a book signing of the companion book Dream Street will be held January 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. In addition a panel discussion on "The City as a Living Entity" will be presented on January 20 at 7 p.m., and on March 5 at 7 p.m., photographers whose work is displayed in "Our Streets" will discuss their work. On March 26 at 7 p.m. "Dream Street" curator and writer Sam Stephenson presents "The Jazz Loft Tapes: W. Eugene Smith's Obsession with Music" to provide further insight into the man behind the lens.

February 7, 7 and 9:30 p.m. 

CDS presents the Madcat Women's International Festival. Festival organizer Ariella Bendov will show a selection of experimental documentary and narrative films/videos from around the world, including "Truth Seekers" and "NYC, Just Like I Pictured It." Cost: $3 

February 21, 8 p.m.

A/V Geeks: regularly scheduled showing of vintage educational films and filmstrips--presents "Brats," a series of films about early brat development. Suggested donation: $3 

For more events check out the CDS website at cds.aas.duke.edu  

- Macy Parker

IV. Perpetuating...

Besides attending events at the center, those interested in documentary work can enroll in academic classes sponsored by CDS. The center has sponsored a certificate program in documentary studies for continuing education students for several years, and it has since become known as one of the strongest of its kind.

Recently, CDS has also begun offering a similar certificate program to undergraduate students at Duke. The undergraduate certificate consists of six classes: a survey course in documentary work, four approved elective courses and a capstone seminar in which students complete a documentary project and present it to the community. Elective courses for the certificate include classes in photography, oral history, internships in the "Literacy Through Photography" program, documentary writing and many other approved courses cross-listed with various Duke departments.

- Macy Parker