Featured Courses


Documentary Video Institute



In this eight-day intensive, students are fully immersed in the process of documentary filmmaking. Working in small production teams (one instructor for every four students) led by experienced documentary filmmakers, you will be introduced to an array of tools and techniques as you collaborate with a partner to direct, shoot, edit, and screen a documentary short. By the time you arrive at the institute, we will have arranged for you to do fieldwork in the Durham community on a documentary subject; you will then work with your partner to decide on the technical and creative approach you want to take with your project. We will also explore different documentary genres and discuss collaboration, ethics, and community outreach. Examples of previous students’ projects can be found on CDS Porch: cdsporch.org/archives/13000. (48 hours)

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Master Class: Nonfiction Writing



This workshop brings students together with professional writers and editors for an intense week of collaborative discussion, revision, and writing. Students in the workshop will read and discuss the ongoing projects of fellow students, work individually with the instructors to refine and shape their own projects, and participate in readings and round-table discussions with top figures in the publishing world. Throughout the week, students will have the space and time for sustained, concentrated writing, as well as access to the world-class Duke University Libraries system. This is a workshop on craft, structure, and the art of writing great nonfiction, and a rare opportunity to be guided closely by top editors and writers. (35 hours)

Duncan Murrell is the Writer in Residence at the Center for Documentary Studies and a contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine and The Normal School. His work has also appeared in Guernica, The Oxford American, Southern Cultures, and many other publications. Murrell was an editor at Algonquin Books, where he acquired and edited several national bestsellers in fiction and nonfiction. He is a graduate of Cornell and Northwestern Universities and has been a resident at Yaddo.

Belle Boggs is the author of Mattaponi Queen, an award-winning collection of linked stories. As an essayist, she has written about the impact of infertility on nonhuman primates, the science of assisted reproduction, and the cultural significance of science education. Boggs has received fellowships to the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences and is a recipient of a 2011 Artist Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council and a 2012 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has published fiction and nonfiction in The Paris Review, Harper’s, Slate, Glimmer Train, The Oxford American, and Orion, among other publications.

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