On April 4-7, I went to a Full Frame Festival offered through a communications class at William peace university.
A week before, we needed to order the tickets online fast or the seats of our desired documentary would get sold out. I ordered my tickets early, but was not able to get into two documentaries that I really wanted to see.
The festival began on Thursday, but we went on Friday April 5. We met together with the class at around 9:30 and picked up our tickets for our shows. When I walked into the rooms of one of the documentaries, it looked like a regular cinema theater but the seats were very tight in my first room.
Although the seats were tight, the first two documentaries were on my top lists of the whole festival. The documentaries were shown in pairs if needed and the first documentary would be short compared to the followed-up documentary. In a way, both documentaries complemented each other.
The first documentary that I watched was called “Moment to Moment.” It was about an elderly couple who loves each other but have been through very tough times. The male partner has alzheimer’s disease and can no longer solve big problems and remember important details of his life.
The husband gets satisfaction from his work and his wife decided to take all of his copper work and turn them into art pieces. When shown and displayed for the world to see the husbands work became a success.
The ten minute documentary did not only show the tough times but it exemplifies the love each individual had for each other. I cried and teared up because the battle the couple was facing is one of my biggest fears. I have a fear of losing my memory and not being able to remember who I am or who others are around me.
After crying and starting the festival off on a good track with “Moment to Moment”, the following documentary was even better. The next documentary was called “Exit Music” and was about a male teenager who was fighting to stay alive on tanks of oxygen.
Mucus would get trapped into his lungs, causing difficulty breathing his whole life. The documentary showed animations of work that the main character, Ethan, created throughout his life. Animations from clip art, short animations of war, people fighting, and many more.
The animations where played as transitions to display his life and his imagination. Ethan was also a musician and you saw his played music with his friends as he lived his life. Ethan had a lot of life in him as he was smart and educated. Ethan was always told he did not have much time to live and always beat what the doctors anticipated.
Eventually, Ethan passed away because he could not take the pain and suffering anymore. Ethan’s life was recorded mainly from the views of his father who loved Ethan very much. The view points and love that his parents had was displayed beautifully by the editor.
“Decades of Fire” was another documentary that I watched, which represented the burning cities that were happening all over New York from the 1960-1980. The government had a role to play when these fires were breaking out in cities all over New York. “Decades of Fire” takes you through the perspective of a woman who lived in the Bronx during her childhood. She travels all over different cities to see who still is living in the communities that were burned down and left to reconstruct themselves. The documentary was very informative on dark moments in the history of America.
The documentary showed videos of buildings being burned down and showed what it did to the community throughout the years. I was learning a big part of America’s history that I did not know about before since it was 10-20 years before I was born.
Check out our other #FullFrameFocus articles to learn more about the festival!