My 5th consecutive (and 6th total) Full Frame exceeded my expectations; in fact, I’ve had the best time I’ve had since the first time I came here.

It’s easy to get jaded in this business of festival hopping — the same Marriott, the same cinema, the same old same old! And it was my first year without a team of IndiePixers; since we had 21 BELOW premiering at Sarasota, the team was forced to divide and conquer.

Full Frame is not, by any means, a party festival. Parties last strictly until midnight, and start exactly at 10 pm. The food is good, but no one is going to end up naked in a hot tub, for better or worse. But for me, this year’s Full Frame was about falling in love again. Falling in love with thinking rigorously about nonfiction film, engaging with the community, having incredible conversations with some of the pioneers of the genre, and most importantly, seeing some amazing — and diverse — films. Sometimes I miss trading in academia for the industry, and this year’s Full Frame had the perfect balance of both. And perhaps it was also because of one Jeremiah Zagar, director of IN A DREAM. But I will get to that later.

I first came to Full Frame in 1999 – my senior year of college. That was the first year of the festival, then called Double Take, and my hero, Errol Morris (the reason I got into documentary at age 15)- was the recipient of the Career Achievement Award. I forced my college boyfriend to drive us 15 hours from Wesleyan University in Connecticut; we got $50 student passes and stayed in a cheap motel on the outskirts of town.

10 years later — Writing this I realize it’s my decade-anniversary of this festival — I am back yet again. And I am having drinks and lunch with people like Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar, whose film, A LION IN THE HOUSE, is a masterpiece and one of my favorites of all time. I am discussing distribution with Hart and Dana Heinz Perry, two career documentarians (Hart shot HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A. with Barbara Kopple, another hero of mine). I am waving hello to Sam Pollard, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, discussing journalistic ethics with Laura Poitras (MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY), Ian Olds (OPERATION DREAMLAND), and Andrew Berends (DELTA BOYS). And of course, discussing films with Ed Pincus (co-director of the IndiePix-distributed THE AXE IN THE ATTIC, founder of the MIT film program, co-author of the FILMMAKERS HANDBOOK, and mentor to Ross McElwee, Richard Pena, and countless others). I have grown as this festival has grown, and have come to realize it’s hugely, hugely important to me.

Yesterday during the Career Tribute to the great St. Claire Bourne, Bill Jersey, the legendary filmmaker of A TIME FOR BURNING and inspiration for Saint, Sam Pollard, and others, thanked Nanci Buirski for founding the festival. And I realized what an amazing feat she DID pull off. Now there are other documentary festivals of course, which I adore — HotDocs, True/False, Hot Springs. But Nanci started it all, and for that I truly commend her.

The other amazing thing is to see the new guard of documentarians interact with the legends who are so generous about mentoring them. St. Clair Bourne was a mentor to dozens of up and coming filmmakers, many of whom were in the audience at his tribute. From Bill Jersey passing the baton to Saint and Saint then to Sam Pollard and Sam Pollard to countless others, the idea of mentoring and support was celebrated here. I sat at the tribute next to Jeremiah Zagar, director of the incredible film IN A DREAM (which by the way IndiePix is releasing theatrically starting Friday). Jeremiah’s film won here last year and this year, he is on the jury. He is poised in my, and many others’, opinions, to become a great filmmaker. And he WILL, in a couple decades from now, be a mentor to the next generation of filmmakers. During his time at Full Frame, he had dinner with Bill Jersey, hung out with Ed Pincus and Sam Pollard (who was consulting editor on IN A DREAM) and was on a jury with Peter Gilbert. He told me this was the best festival he’s ever attended. Seeing the delight of JEremiah being respected and mentored and taken seriously by his heroes, of being on a jury with Peter (who co-directed a documentary which we mutually feel was life-changing and an absolute masterpiece, HOOP DREAMS) made me throw away all of my jaded-ness and like I say above, fall in love again. Start fresh. A rebirth, if that’s not too cheesy.

And to also delight in the work of the newer generation — my generation. Iris Olssen, a dear friend and major talent whose film, SUMMERCHILD, IndiePix distributes. She was here wearing numerous hats. — on the jury with Marshall Curry, Julia Reichert, and James Longley; showing her second film, BETWEEN DREAMS, a gorgeous and evocative short shot on the Trans-Siberian Express, and trying to find good American shorts for a great festival she works with in Helsinki, DocPoint. Iris has a voice and a vision that marks her as a true emerging talent. There was also Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri, who did not show their remarkable film, OCTOBER COUNTRY, here, but enjoyed the numerous great films and are ones to watch. And I was delighted by the presentation of the recipients of the Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant, which was formed by my good friend and colleague Thom Powers (co-chair of the Cinema Eye Honors) and Ian Olds, a wonderful director who was Garrett’s partner at the time of his sudden death at age 37. Garrett’s life partner, Rachel was the third person on the selection committee this year and another old friend, Cameron Yates, was one of two projects selected. I was so pleasantly surprised to see clips from Cameron’s film, which I had no real idea about before. I had known Cameron as a writer, but not as a filmmaker and his upcoming film, THE CANAL STREET MADAM, looks to be incredible — multi-layered, important, funny, and powerful. A portrait of Jeanette Maier, a New Orleans-based prostitution madam who was arrested for running a brothel (at which her mother organized the books and her daughter worked as a prostitute), the film uses humor and raw honesty to illustrate issues like feminism, sex workers’ empowerment, gender politics, while being a humanistic and complex family story. I am so proud of Cameron, and cannot wait to see the final product.

In fact, one of the favorite lines I heard all week was that of Ian Olds, introducing the grant, when he said that Garrett Scott approached his subjects with “a cold eye and a warm heart.” He emphasized the combination of intellect and compassion, which I believe is what all great nonfiction filmmakers should strive for. The other amazing line that I will take with me was that of Bill Jersey, who said the best skill of the documentarian is to “learn to get out of the way.” St. Claire Bourne taught him to let his subjects speak for themselves. “So many filmmakers are about being clever and smart, or cute and pretty, if that’s your thing,” Jersey said, “but the best ones learn to get out of the way.”

Oh, and I saw wonderful films – BURMA VJ, MAN UP, BETWEEN DREAMS, BITCH ACADEMY, THE FLYING SHEPHERD, LOVE ON DELIVERY, THE LOWER NINTH WARD, SAINT MISBEHAVIN’: THE WAY GRAVY MOVIE. But more on those in detail later.

And finally, to end on an inspirational note, here is my favorite line of the festival, again by the amazing Bill Jersey. “The viruses people have been infected with lately have been harmful; viruses of instilling fear. Documentary filmmakers need to throw our bottles into the ocean, because it’s a big ocean. And we need to infect each other with a virus of inspiration and hope.”