Center for Documentary Studies

The Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit support corporation of Duke University dedicated to the documentary arts. Having been created in 1989 through an endowment from the Lyndhurst Foundation,^[1][2] The organization’s founders were Robert Coles, William Chafe, Alex Harris, and Iris Tillman Hill. In 1994, CDS moved into a renovated nineteenth-century home, named it the Lyndhurst House.^[3] That structure and a large addition house the main activities of CDS on the edge of Duke University’s campus in Durham, North Carolina. The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, a CDS program, has its offices on the American Tobacco Campus in the American Tobacco Historic District in downtown Durham.

The Center for Documentary Studies has had four directors since its founding: Iris Tillman Hill (1990–98), Tom Rankin (1998–2013),^[4][5] Wesley Hogan (2013–2021),^[6] and Opeyemi Olukemi (2021–present).^[7] With support from the Reva and David Logan Foundation,^[8] the organization held a 25th-anniversary event in 2015. The three-day forum, Documentary 2015: Origins and Inventions, included panellists and honorees from the documentary mediums that CDS is rooted in—photography, writing, audio, and film/video. Honorees included the Kitchen Sisters, Natasha Trethewey, John Cohen, and Samuel D. Pollard.^[9]

Staff and faculty at CDS teach, produce, support, and present the documentary arts.^[10] Among the organization’s stated goals is promoting documentary work that fosters respect among individuals, breaks down barriers to understanding, and illuminates social injustices.^[11] Other stated organizational priorities include diversifying the documentary arts and exploring documentary innovation.^[12][13]