Under New Leadership, Full Frame Doc Fest Sets 2010 Slate

Haj joined the festival earlier this year following her work as a documentary producer and consultant. Her producing credits include the award-winning documentary “Scene Smoking,” and “Brushes with Life.” She’s also worked as an actor in both film and theater.

“Deirdre brings unique skills, experience, and perspective to Full Frame,” said Tom Rankin, a Full Frame Board member, in an official statement. “Her rich and diverse background makes her the perfect choice to build on Full Frame’s success.”

Kicking off the festival will be the U.S. premiere of “Kings of Pastry” from directing team D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. The film follows Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of the French Pasty School in Chicago, during the intense Meilleur Ouvrier de France competition that pits French pastry chefs against one another over a three-day period.

This is not the first time the two directors have opened the festival. In 2004 their documentary “Elaine Stritch at Libery” served as the opening night film. That same year, Hegedus also co-curated the thematic program “Leadership Through a Gender Lens.”

This year’s thematic program will be curated by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, directors of Oscar nominated film, “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.” Their program will feature a series of films centered around the broad theme of labor. Bognar and Reichert are no strangers to the festival, having received the Special Jury Award in 2006 for “A Lion in the House.”

“After spending six months observing an amazing group of auto workers as their jobs ended, we realized how ignorant we were of the labor it takes to make the vehicles we drive: all the many skills, how they fit together,” they said in a joint press release.

Also on the festival’s slate is the New Docs program, which features many U.S. premieres, and documentaries that made the rounds at this year’s Sundance. The full list is published on page two of this article.

Previous Sundance competitors screening at Full Frame include Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing’s “12th & Delaware,” Alex Gibney’s in-depth examination of lobbyist Jack Abramoff “Casino Jack and the United States of Money,” and Lixin Fan’s widely acclaimed “Last Train Home.” Films making their U.S. premieres include the Danish documentary “Albert’s Winter” from director Andreas Koefoed and “Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould,” a portrait of the revered pianist from directors Michele Hozer and Peter Raymont.

Fifty one films are screening in the New Docs program, a host of them will be making their world premieres in the section. That list includes John-Keith Wasson’s “Surviving Hitler: A Love Story,” Peter Sillen’s “I am Secretly an Important Man,” Rodrigo Dorfman’s “Generation Exile” and Peter Bulls’ “Dirty Business.”

Read more by Nigel M. Smith @ indieWIRE.