Are you a student interested in participating in Doc+ 2026? Fill out our interest form to stay informed!
What is Doc+?
Doc+ is an intensive six-week summer program for undergraduate students 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.
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.
Eligibility
Doc+ is open to all undergraduate students (except graduating seniors). Students must be able to work in-person for the duration of the program and should be able to make a full-time commitment for the six weeks.
Application
The application for Doc+ 2026 will launch in January. To be the first to know, fill out our interest form.
Contact
Email cdsdocplus@duke.edu with any questions.
2025 Doc+ Projects
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.
Artificial Horizon
Creative Project Partner: Elizabeth M. Webb
Project Overview: Artificial Horizon is a feature-length documentary that explores the layered social and natural histories of former plantation land in Alabama, which serves as the origin for the filmmaker's family. The film examines how boundaries are created and offers plants as metaphors for resistance to these constructed divisions. Doc+ students will assist with editing and organizing interview transcripts, story mapping, identifying additional funding sources and planning for an impact campaign.
Students will gain skills in:
- Transcription and editing of interview materials
- Story mapping and development
- Identifying funding opportunities
- Impact campaign planning and documentary post-production skills (including AfterEffects and Premiere Pro).