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It’s DocuTime, the 10th anniversary of
Wilmington’s one-day documentary film
festival. When the doors open on January
28, the program will feature a selection of
national and international films.
“Cucalorus takes a lot of local films. It’s one of
the things they showcase,” said international documentary
filmmaker Paula Haller, founder and current
producer for the DocuTime festival.
Last month Haller was still refining the 2012
DocuTime lineup, confirming two films of the half
dozen or so that will be screened this year.
One is Carol Channing: Larger than Life, produced
and directed by Dori Berinstein, described by
Haller as the first ever documentary film to capture
the magic and vivacity of the 90-year-old icon.
Also scheduled for screening is Unfinished Spaces,
a film by Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray
documenting the rise, fall and eventual rediscovery
of a visionary architectural masterpiece — Cuba’s
National Arts Schools project.
When she arrived in Wilmington, Haller was
then as she is now, a renowned documentary filmmaker
whose best-known work, Four Americans in
China, was picked up by National Geographic in
1985. She was very active with the International
Documentary Association (IDA) in Hollywood.
The local festival was born out of a series of
IDA luncheon meetings, at which the association
announced the winners of its annual awards for Best
Feature, Best Short and so on. When she arrived
on the Azalea Coast 10 years ago, those luncheon
meetings evolved into Wilmington’s first exclusive
documentary film festival.
In those years, the DocuTime audience has
grown from a small gathering of 50 people in a
café screening room to an annual full-day festival
attracting nearly 200 people at King Hall on the
University of North Carolina Wilmington campus.
She is currently working on a documentary film
of her own that will highlight the history and present
day work of the American Forces Network,
which broadcasts news, entertainment and sports to
members of the Armed Forces worldwide.
The 10th annual DocuTime Film festival, a presentation of WHQR 91.3 FM, Public Radio and the University of North Carolina
Wilmington Department of Film Studies, is planned for January 28 at UNCW’s King Hall Auditorium. Advance tickets are on sale at
Sharky’s Box Office (910-962-4045) or through E-Tix (www.etix.com).
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
Top: Paula Haller, founder of the DocuTime film festival. Photography by Joshua
Curry. Above left: Haller explores the Great Wall of China in 1982 while working
on her documentary that was later picked up by National Geographic. Above
right: Haller produced and directed the Disney film, Children of the Soviet Union.
Photography courtesy of Paula Haller.