The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival has announced its Thematic Program and Tribute.

The annual Full Frame Tribute celebrates the work of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jessica Yu.

The 2013 Thematic Program examines the intersections of truth and storytelling with a series of films curated by esteemed filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev.

"Attending Full Frame, what always inspires me most is the infinite variety of approaches to storytelling," says Bar-Lev. "Every documentary is a unique, thorny relationship - between filmmaker and 'character,' fact and representation, reality and story. As guest curator, I've selected a handful of films that wrestle, each in their own way, with the medium of documentary filmmaking itself."

"With this year's Thematic Program, I wanted to address the tension between truth and perspective," says director of programming Sadie Tillery. "What happens when one person's impression of events is at odds with the facts on the ground? I am particularly interested in films that give equal weight to, or even attempt to reconcile, different notions of truth. Amir Bar-Lev brings distinct experience and insight to this exploration. I'm thrilled to be working with him."

Amir Bar-Lev directed the documentary films "Fighter" (2001), "My Kid Could Paint That" (2007), and "The Tillman Story" (2010). He co-produced the documentary "Trouble the Water" (2008), which won the 2008 Full Frame Grand Jury Award and was a 2009 Academy Award nominee. Bar-Lev is currently directing "Happy Valley," about the Penn State scandal.

The festival will honor Jessica Yu with the Full Frame Tribute and will feature a retrospective of her work. Yu is a director of both documentaries and scripted films. She won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short for "Breathing Lessons" (1996), a film about Mark O'Brien, a poet confined to an iron lung. Her latest film for Participant Media, "Last Call at the Oasis" (2011), is a chronicle of the water crisis. Her documentaries include the award-winning features "Protagonist" (2007), "In the Realms of the Unreal" (2004), and HBO's "The Living Museum" (1998), and the shorts "Meet Mr. Toilet" (2012) and "The Kinda Sutra" (2009).

"In addition to capturing profound stories, Jessica Yu has made bold choices in her films, implementing exceptional animation, even puppetry, to embrace the experiences of the individuals she has documented," says Tillery. "I am proud to celebrate her unique vision, and to give audiences the opportunity to screen this work again theatrically."

"Full Frame has become an oasis for documentary filmmakers and audiences," says Yu. "Having been fortunate enough to bring several films to the festival, I have found it to be a source of inspiration and camaraderie. Connecting with the excellent filmmakers and enthusiastic audiences of Full Frame pushes you to dare a little more, to keep at it a little longer, and to thank your lucky stars that you're a part of something for which you feel such passion. To be recognized by a festival that has done so much to celebrate the form and to bring the community together is deeply meaningful to me."

The 16th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 4-7, in Durham, with Duke University as the presenting sponsor. The complete schedule of films will be announced March 14. Festival passes are on sale now and can be purchased online at www.fullframefest.org. Tickets go on sale March 25.

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of nonfiction cinema.