It’s Hollywood awards season and moviegoing weather. In the Triangle, the countdown until downtown Durham’s annual Full Frame Documentary Festival in April has begun.
One cinema stopgap, in the meanwhile: the festival’s Winter Road Show series, which brings three buzzy new documentaries—Union, Daughters, and Hollywoodgate—to screen at The Cary Theater this month. Screenings are on January 23, January 30, and February 6, respectively, and admission is free to the public, though attendees must first reserve a ticket through the theater website.
All three documentaries were screened at last year’s Full Frame Documentary Festival and are on the 2025 Oscar shortlist.
Directed by Brett Story and Stephen Maing, Union follows the story of a historic labor struggle: the multiyear fight to unionize a Staten Island Amazon fulfillment center. Extolled by critics as artful and immersive, the documentary takes an equally intimate view of ruthless union-busting tactics, egregious working conditions, and imperfect union leadership.
It’s a documentary, so viewers know how the story ends: In 2022, workers won the vote by a wide margin, making JFK8 the first warehouse in the country to successfully unionize. But that result was far from a foregone conclusion when Story and Maing began filming and organizers began organizing. Union is not about the final headline—it’s about the messy, transformative fight that comes first.
In the Triangle, it’s a story that couldn’t be more timely: Between February 10-15, as previously reported by the INDY, workers at Garner’s RDU1 Amazon fulfillment center will vote on whether or not to unionize under the worker-led Carolina Amazonians for Solidarity and Empowerment (C.A.U.S.E) movement. As with the Staten Island effort, the decks are stacked high against the North Carolina workers taking on the giant corporation—but if there are enough votes, RDU1 will follow JFK8 as the second warehouse in the country (and the first in the South) to unionize.
full frame coverage over the years
Daughters, which won Full Frame’s Sally Robinson Audience Award last year, is a moving account of a program in a Washington, D.C., jail, in which incarcerated fathers prepare for a father-daughter dance—for many, the first in-person contact they’ve had with their child in years.
In Hollywoodgate, director Ibrahim Nash’at documents a tense regime change, in the months after the United States withdrew from Afghanistan—leaving behind billions in goods and weaponry for the taking. Nash’at is said to have rare but conditional access to the Taliban, and Hollywoodgate reflects this, with minimal commentary and interviews—instead, what’s not said is as important as what is said.
Showing these films for free to the community is a way to keep the festival is an important prelude to Full Frame’s April 3-5 festival, event organizers say.
“Year-round programs like the Winter Road Show allow us to stay connected with our community beyond the festival weekend,” festival co-director Emily Foster writes in a press release. “Offering these films ensures more people can experience powerful storytelling and meaningful conversations throughout the year.”
Passes for Full Frame Documentary Festival go on sale on January 15.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Follow Culture Editor Sarah Edwards on Bluesky or email sedwards@indyweek.com.