I shook my head when Dante James told me he submitted "Slavery and the Making of America" to the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in 2006.

"I found it a bit strange that a film respected enough to received three national Emmy nominations wasn't respected enough to be viewed at Full Frame," James said.

I took another look at the statuette of a winged woman sitting on the trophy case in his home office. James won the Emmy that year. He has vowed never to submit another film at Full Frame.

Deirdre Haj, executive director at Full Frame, said the incident happened long before her tenure,making it difficult for her to respond to why James' documentary wasn't chosen for viewing.

"I hope the selection process has changed since then," James said. "Full Frame is a great organization and I believe in its vision."

James is an artist-in-residence instructor/filmmaker at Duke University. He was mentored by the late Henry Hampton, founder and executive producer of Blackside Films, best known for the PBS series "Eyes on the Prize."

James has produced and directed "Exploring 2 Frontiers: The Neurolab Space Shuttle Mission" (1998), "A Philip Randolph: For Jobs and For Freedom" (1996), "America's War on Poverty" (1995), "The Great Depression" (1993) and "Marian Anderson" (1991). All award winners.

Last year he completed "Harlem in Montmartre" for PBS's "Great Performances" series. He was not completely pleased with the final product.

"Changes were made after I left," he said. "I like to make films in a way where the story just evolves.They rewrote the narration in a way that they told viewers everything along the way. They undercut the storytelling and the drama."

James has decided to look into new directions for the films he makes.

"I'm to the point now where it's not best for me and the material I'm interested in to do films inside PBS TV stations," he said. "People outside our culture and outside our experience often have problems with interpreting and understanding the nuances of the African-American experience and interpreting our experience."

James wanted to tell the story in "Harlem" in a way that reflected the rhythmic voice of jazz music. He wanted the narration to be like the sound of a snare drum. He wanted to voice to wail like Mile's trumpet and scream like Coltrane's sax. He wanted more than a history lesson on African Americans who left America to create a jazz culture in Paris between World War I and II; he wanted the story to sound like jazz - improvisational with a structure that gets you before it's over.

James talked about being inspired when he met Gordon Parks. While absorbing the genius of the man who became Hollywood's first major black director with his film "The Learning Tree." James remembered Parks used his camera as a weapon against all he disliked about America: racism, poverty and discrimination. James and Parks shared the notion that film is art that can be used as a catalyst for social change.

In 2007, James produced and directed the critically acclaimed dramatic short film "The Doll." Based on a story written by Charles Chestnut, the making of "The Doll" inspired James to make Chestnut's "Marrow of Tradition" into a motion picture. "There are lessons that apply to where we are today," James said. Lessons like the benefit of hard work and discipline. Lessons about resisting the urge to retaliate and how actions can impact the people you love. He's seeking investors for the project.

Full Frame is a big deal to folks from across the country. James is willing to pass on submitting his work. The Emmy in his home office says it all. If it was good enough for the winged woman it should have been good enough for the folks in the Bull City.