Are you a Duke undergrad interested in participating in Doc+ 2026? We've just launched the call for applications! Apply here by February 27, 2026.
What is Doc+?
Doc+ is an intensive six-week summer program open to all undergraduate students (except graduating seniors) passionate about the documentary arts. Hosted by Duke Center for Documentary Studies, the program offers students the opportunity to explore diverse mediums — such as photography, film, audio and oral history — while working in small teams under the mentorship of a creative project partner.
Each team collaborates on a unique documentary project that contributes to their creative partner’s documentary work. Along the way, students build hands-on skills through workshops in areas like film editing, audio production, and darkroom techniques. By the end of the program, students will have made a meaningful contribution to a documentary project with real-world impact.
Students make a full-time commitment to work in-person for the duration of the program and receive a $3,500 stipend or room and board in on-campus housing. Email cdsdocplus@duke.edu with any questions.
2026 Doc+ Projects
Basketball Heaven
Creative Project Partner: Resita Cox
Project Overview: Basketball Heaven is a nationally supported feature documentary backed by Sundance, Chicken and Egg Films, ITVS PBS and the Southern Documentary Fund. The film follows Emmy award-winning director Resita Cox as she returns to her hometown of Kinston, North Carolina, a place known for producing more NBA players per capita than anywhere else in the world, to explore community legacy, mentorship and resilience. Doc+ students will support the film as it enters its final production and post-production phase by logging and organizing footage, preparing materials for the edit, assisting on select shoots and contributing to the film’s community-based impact programming including youth media work in eastern North Carolina. This is a meaningful opportunity to participate in a feature documentary preparing for national broadcast.
Students will gain skills in:
- Documentary production and post-production workflows
- Footage logging, organization and editorial preparation
- On-set production assistance
- Community-based impact planning and engagement
- Youth media and outreach programming
Field Notes: Photographers on Process, Practice, and Place
Creative Project Partner: Kate Medley
Project Overview: Join the launch of a brand-new documentary photography podcast that brings listeners into the creative lives of the South’s most compelling visual storytellers. The series is hosted by Doc+ mentor Kate Medley, an award-winning documentary photographer whose work on Southern culture and community life has been featured in major national publications and in her acclaimed book Thank You Please Come Again. Students will work closely with Medley to shape the series by researching guests, curating archival images, outlining story arcs, preparing interview prompts and participating directly in the recording of episodes. This project offers an immersive experience in audio storytelling and documentary research with the chance to help build a podcast from its very first season.
Students will gain skills in:
- Documentary research and guest preparation
- Audio storytelling and narrative structure
- Interview development and production workflows
- Archival research and visual curation
- Podcast production and collaborative creative development
German Soul
Creative Project Partner: D.L. Anderson
Project Overview: German Soul is a hybrid live documentary performance that blends archival storytelling, music, film and foodways to explore the Germanic roots of Southern soul food and the health inequities connected to those histories. The project is led by D. L. Anderson, an award-winning documentarian and co-founder of Vittles Films whose work bridges food culture, community history and public engagement. As the project prepares for a multi-state tour, the Doc+ team will lead the research and partnership strategy that shapes how the work connects with communities. Students will map connections across cultural institutions, health equity networks, genealogy and food studies organizations, and archival collections while helping develop a prototype for Land of Fish and Grits, an interactive platform that documents family food histories. This project sits at the intersection of storytelling, culture, health and public engagement.
Students will gain skills in:
- Archival and historical research
- Partnership mapping across cultural, health and academic institutions
- Community-engaged storytelling and public humanities work
- Research and development for live documentary performance
- Design and prototyping of interactive storytelling platforms
Artificial Horizon
Creative Project Partners: Elizabeth M. Webb and the Hello Benjamin Production Team
Project Overview: Artificial Horizon returns to Doc + as it enters advanced pre-production in anticipation of a major, multi-location 10-day shoot planned for late summer 2026. Students will support location scouting and permitting, coordination for two large-scale scenes at a military boarding school and a family reunion, and preparation for a complex interior tracking shot filmed inside a moving trailer home. They will also participate in local screen tests and small Durham-based shoots while gaining experience with crew logistics, equipment rentals, insurance preparation and overall production infrastructure. As the project moves into early post-production, students will help organize media and assemble initial scene samples, offering hands-on insight into the editorial phase of a professional documentary already underway.
Students will gain skills in:
- Location scouting, permitting and production coordination
- Crew logistics, equipment rentals and insurance preparation
- Production support for large-scale and technically complex scenes
- Media organization and early editorial workflows
- Hands-on experience within an active documentary production environment
Highlights from Doc+ 2025
Doc+ 2025 took place during Summer Session 1. Fourteen students participated, receiving either a stipend of $3,500 or room and board in on-campus housing. Read our stories about the inaugural cohort:
- How Six Weeks of Documentary Storytelling Helped Students Find Their Future
“I don’t think there’s a more compelling candidate for the meaning of life than finding and telling people’s stories,” said one Doc+ student. “I now know what I want to be doing for the rest of my life.”
- Doc+: A Summer of Documentary Immersion at Duke
The newest Duke “plus” program isn’t about fetching coffee for directors.
God Sent Us Alan
Creative Project Partner: Rebekah Fergusson
Project Overview: When a young father in Tennessee tested positive for HIV in 1985, the diagnosis shook his family and divided his church. Forty years later, his daughter is piecing together the story. God Sent Us Alan is a hybrid documentary that blends real interviews and archival footage with fictionalized scenes to tell this deeply personal family history. Doc+ students will assist the film team in conducting archival, location, and subject research, as well as logging and organizing existing footage to support the development of the fictional elements of the film.
Students will gain skills in:
- Archival research and organization
- Logging, transcribing, and selecting key footage and interviews
- Interview preparation and creating subject dossiers
- Story development, particularly in blending nonfiction and fiction within a film.
Just Space?: The Hardee Street Apartments
Creative Project Partner: Tinu Diver
Project Overview: The Just Space?: The Hardee Street Apartments project documents the development and impact of one of DHIC’s newest affordable housing communities in Durham, NC. The project explores how thoughtful design and community-driven approaches address the growing issue of housing affordability in a rapidly changing city. Doc+ students will produce multimedia pieces to help tell the stories of stakeholders and residents, emphasizing how affordable housing contributes to stability and inclusivity.
Students will gain skills in:
- Conducting interviews with stakeholders, residents, and community members
- Capturing and producing multimedia content
- Researching the historical and socioeconomic contexts related to housing
- Crafting narratives that connect documentary arts with social issues.
Student Action with Farmworkers
Creative Project Partner: Jacey Anderson
Project Overview: Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) is a nonprofit organization focused on building bridges between students and farmworkers to foster mutual learning, improve farmworker conditions and build diverse coalitions for social change. This project is gathering oral histories from SAF’s past interns, exploring their journeys from SAF participation to their current roles. Students will collaborate with SAF and archivists to create a database of SAF campaigns and direct actions. Students will also conduct and transcribe oral histories, create interview highlights and design zine pages that will be incorporated into SAF’s programming materials.
Students will gain skills in:
- Archival research and database creation
- Conducting oral history interviews, including pre-interview research and transcription
- Synthesizing and analyzing interview findings for public-facing projects
- Creating professional-grade, bilingual materials such as zines.