‘The Great Invisible’ wins Environment Award at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

‘Evolution of a Criminal’ among nine award winners at Full Frame

Apr. 06, 2014 @ 04:05 PM

Cliff Bellamy, The Herald Sun

DURHAM — “Evolution of a Criminal,” a documentary by filmmaker Darius Clark Monroe, took the Reva and David Logan Grand Jury Award and the Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award during Sunday’s ceremony at the final day of the 2014 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Monroe was an honor student in high school, but he was acutely aware of his family’s difficulty in paying monthly bills. At age 16, he and a friend robbed a bank to get money. Monroe was tried as an adult, accepted a plea deal and served three years of a five-year sentence.

When he got out of jail, he used his camera to explore what led to the robbery and its effects on himself and his family.

In presenting the award, CDS Director Wesley Hogan said Monroe’s film explores a side of society that many do not see, the fact that “most people in America live paycheck to paycheck.”

The CDS award was created “to honor and support documentary artists whose works are potential catalysts for education and change.”

Monroe could not be at the award ceremony, but through an email stated that “I hope that this film will be used to uplift, inspire and inform.”

The Nicholas School of the Environment Award went to Margaret Brown for her film “The Great Invisible,” which chronicled the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion that spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.