Believe it or not, Duke University may be cultivating the next Michael Moore.
Student-produced works of film, photography, writing and oral history lined the walls of the Center for Documentary Studies Sunday, when audiences piled in to experience Duke’s first student documentary festival.
The Students of the World program housed an assortment of exhibits, profiling everything from female rappers on the streets of Havana to nutrition classes in rural Nicaragua. Both amateur and seasoned students shared their work, with displays ranging from the provocative to the absurd. “It’s Like Cheers, but with Coffee instead of Beer” is the title of one featured film. Another exhibit, a photo slideshow that greets visitors when they enter, is called “Asian American Christianity.”
The audience doubled over in laughter when a rapper in a film about payday loaning rhymed, “My pay is tight, what’s a brother to do? Maybe I’ll move on up to the payday joint, and go on then to Southpoint.”
Sophomore Meenakshi Chivukula, a Robertson Scholar and event organizer, first conceived of hosting a documentary festival at Duke after attending the renowned Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in downtown Durham, which Moore dropped in on last April prior to his summer smash Fahrenheit 9/11.
Along with other members of Students of the World, she borrowed the Full Frame program model to develop Duke’s own festival, a four-hour program with time allotted for an open gallery, guest speakers, student screenings and Students of the World members to share their experiences.
“Once you see the student projects, you realize what type of talent people have,” Chivukula said.
Sophomore Da Liu, one of the participants, portrayed rural China through a series of peasant portraits. “I had volunteered for a non-profit organization over the summer in rural China, and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to present my project to the Durham community and try to raise the awareness of rural issues in China right now,” he said.
Amon Anderson, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill senior and festival participant, showed a video he produced for a North Carolina Fellows service project. “It’s a collage of perspectives from students, administrators and faculty from all parts of campus on the state of diversity at UNC right now,” he said about the piece.
SOW members emphasized documentary work’s potential for transforming society.
“Documentary work can be a vehicle for social change since it represents voices that aren’t heard because of social and economic reasons,” said junior Linda Arnade, a SOW member. Guest speakers also offered reasons. “We wanted to let [North and South Carolina farm workers] tell their own story, to let the farmer say ‘I’m a guitarist or woodworker or I can make wire scorpions and crochet,’ because too often, advocacy groups view farm workers as victimized and to be helped,” said speaker Tony Macias, assistant director for Student Action with Farmworkers.
Susan Patrick, a sophomore who attended the festival to see her roommate’s work, said she was inspired by the art. “It’s really amazing to see what students can produce after their experiences,” Patrick said.
The exhibit hosted about 20 student entries, and participants included students exclusively from UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke.
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