I Heart True/False
I knew I was going to like True/False before I arrived in Columbia, Missouri for the first time this year. Everyone who has gone in the past has raved about how friendly and fun it is and how David Wilson and Paul Sturtz, the festival founders, always program a really interesting slate of films. I was not disappointed. In fact I was quite bowled over.
The films were excellent, the parties were fun and everybody was so friendly it was almost disconcerting (for a Brit living in New York it’s a bit of a shock to the system). The local community gets very involved in the festival which means that there are enthusiastic volunteers everywhere and screenings are packed with locals rather than industry folk. And they really do come out to support the films. Every screening I went to was full or nearly full and most people stayed to participate in energetic Q&As after the screenings. I never saw the old Ragtag cinema but the new building is a great focal point for the fest and the Uprise Bakery kept me in caffeine and ginger peach muffins throughout.
I saw some wonderful films and will write more about these later but I, like many others, was blown away by Anna Broinowski’s Forbidden Lies and am really curious to know why it essentially vanished after screening at HotDocs last year. Forbidden Lies is the story of a woman with just a touch of The Usual Suspect’s Keyser Soze about her. In the spirit of True/False, we had been having some interesting debates about the nature of truth in documentary storytelling during the long ride from Kansas City Airport and continuing over coffee and beers in the Ragtag, and this film is a mascot for probing the slash between truth and fiction. Broinowski did a great Q&A with Brent Hoff from Wholphin that included the following classic lines:
The marriage between a con artist and a filmmaker is a match made in heaven.
To make documentary portrait you need to gain someone’s trust and then betray them. But in this case I was the one who was betrayed.
Norma (the film’s subject) was a joy to work with. One of the most fascinating things to watch is someone lying on film.
Other highlights for me were the wonderful closing night film James Marsh’s Man on Wire, Antoine Cattin’s and Pavel Kostamarov’s beautifully shot The Mother, and Andrey Paounov’s funny and disturbing The Mosquito Problem (and Other Stories).
David and Paul wrote in the festival guide:
“We started out this year debating whether we could have a fest at all. The Missouri Theatre was closing for renovations, Ragtag was getting ready to move. It all seemed a little overwhelming. But we decided to take the leap, jumping into the unknown with the hope that a net would appear.”
They jumped and the net did appear which is lucky for all of us who could be there to revel in the love that True/False inspired – for great films and good people and Mucca Pazza, best marching band EVER.
Mucca Pazza at the March into March parade up Broadway on Friday
At the parade
Mucca Pazza played again at the Lovers Leap Party later that night – I took this with my iPhone but I think it’s rather lovely
Trombones are the way forward!
Anna Broinowksi and Brent Hoff during the Q&A after a screening of Forbidden Lies
IndiePix’s Danielle DiGiacomo and her sister Alana at the Reality Bites event
Buskers played before every screening which is a really great idea. This is Andy Smetanka, who is also an animator, playing the saw.
Filmmaker Josh Weinstein (pretending to be on the phone) and Rivkah Beth Medow who co-directed Sons of a Gun
Paul and David got a standing ovation before the final screening of Man on Wire. Aw, bless.
The fest ended on Sunday night with a super-fun They Might Be Giants show. And then it was over. Sigh.