All these wonderful things

The Top 25 Film Festivals for Documentaries, 2nd Edition - #12. True/False

Previously: #11. CPH:DOX

#12. True/False

Our take: One of the most universally-beloved festivals on the circuit draws filmmakers to the middle of Missouri where appreciative sold out crowds and lovingly homemade activities await.  True/False is one of the very few American festivals that pays for everything.  Its reputation amongst filmmakers is nearly unmached:  without the pressure of deals being made or competition status, filmmakers are able to spend quality time together.  T/F is also one of the more innovative fests on the circuit, constantly re-imagining what panels and parties (and even parades!) can be.  There's enough press and other programmers attending that it's also a place where a film can burst on the scene (OCTOBER COUNTRY last year, FORBIDDEN LIE$ the year before) and leap into the national documentary conversation.

The downside: You won't find us grumbling about the 2 hour drive from St. Louis or Kansas City but others do.  There is pretty universal agreement that the fest hotel is one of (if not) the worst on the circuit.  There's a question of whether the festival's long-standing policy of not promoting premieres is actually benefiting filmmakers who screen there, a few films had their first screenings at True/False and then effectively disappeared for months, caught in a kind of had-a-premiere/waiting-for-a-premiere limbo.  Despite a handful of industry, T/F hasn't yet been able to translate its cred amongst filmmakers to the larger community in the way that Full Frame and Silverdocs have.  The festival's heavy focus on titles just out of Sundance makes it awfully reliant on the quality of that year's Sundance films.

Important recent premieres: They don't call them premieres but they had one of the first public screenings of OCTOBER COUNTRY as well as films that screened "secretly" and would later show up in competition at SXSW and Tribeca.

Selection of films screened at 2009 Fest: BURMA VJ, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC, NO IMPACT MAN, THE HORSE BOY, ROUGH AUNTIES, LOOT, BIG RIVER MAN, SERGIO, AFGHAN STAR, REPORTER

Our coverage of True/False here.

True/False 2009: Salvation Comes Via BIG RIVER MAN

I have not been slacking, this I promise.

On occasion, I have to run off and actually make movies, rather than just write about them, and this past week was one of those times when I found myself down in Southwestern Missouri (just a short car ride from Columbia) to continue the Branson project that I have been working on (with co-director David Wilson and our co-producer Nathan Truesdell) for the past year-plus.

It was nice to dive into filmmaking so quickly after the previous weekend’s True/False Film Festival, exactly the nonfiction tonic I was craving in this early year.  While the announcement of Sundance titles in late November/early December always seems to symbolically kick off the new year in docs (and provides a roadmap as to many of the films that we’ll be talking about in the year to come), Sundance’s place in the calendar year means that we’re still thinking about the year past, even while pondering the year forward: with both Cinema Eye and the Academy announcing their nominees during the festival, we’re as apt to think about TROUBLE THE WATER and MAN ON WIRE as we are WE LIVE IN PUBLIC and ROUGH AUNTIES.

But when we make the trek to Columbia, much of that is past.  The Oscars and the Spirit Awards are behind us – and while Cinema Eye still looms a month later, it feels like we can begin to fully appreciate and chew over the films of 2009.  Thankfully, most of the best of these will appear on screen at True/False.

Talking to someone the other night who had visited True/False for the first time, I was struck by her earliest reaction to the festival – the yearly March March that officially kicks off the festivities on Friday afternoon. 

For those who haven’t witnessed the parade firsthand, imagine a 7-block walk/dance/run across the heart of Columbia’s downtown, featuring drummers, balloons, kids, Snow White in a pedicab, large alien puppets, all manner of signs.  It’s also one of the first times that you will see the other guests – some longtime friends.

My friend noted that everyone was so happy, constantly embracing one another, dancing to the beat of the drummers.  What, she wondered, was this thing?

That is often the first-timer's ponderings once things get going in Columbia - what is this thing?  How can this smallish college town in the middle of nowhere (their words, not mine) have fallen so hard, so fast, so completely for this festival and the films that it screens?  This year, more than 23,000 tickets were sold over the course of 4 days - 5,000 more than last year. 

And the march is just the beginning.  As True/False would continue over the weekend, unfolding many of the year’s best nonfiction films, there would be more to cause feelings of wonder:

John Maringouin’s transcendent BIG RIVER MAN, a visually stunning and frequently hilarious expedition across the heart of the Amazon.  Maringouin, who made one of my favorite films of 2006/2007 – RUNNING STUMBLED, has made a film true to its subject, Martin Strel, one that engages in his excesses, his hallucinations, his quirkiness, his courage.  Working with frequent collaborator Molly Lynch (here both co-director and co-editor), Maringouin is fearless in allowing the audience to laugh at the absurdity of a rotund, wine-swilling marathon swimmer and in following his subjects into the mental abyss.  In a just-begun year of films that have often felt too cautious or even incomplete, finally a film that is unafraid of being messy, passionate, risky, hilarious.  Certainly one of the best films of 2009.

True/False 2009 Thanks You

A lovely thank you video from the folks at T/F and their pals at Boxcar Films...

True/False 2009: Bumpers

By our compatriot Nathan Truesdell...

IMing with True/False Co-Director David Wilson

Just three days until the kick-off of the 6th True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, an event that was in the thoughts of many this past weekend in Los Angeles.

On Friday, before the Spirit Awards and Oscars took up all the oxygen in the room, I had a lengthy IM chat with True/False co-director David Wilson about this year's fest.  Full disclosure - David and I are co-directing a new film about the Ozark Mountain music and show town, Branson, MIssouri, and he is one of the filmmakers involved in the upcoming CONVENTION film.  Long story short, we talk regularly, but there were still some questions I hadn't yet posed to him about this year's incarnation of T/F:

me:  We're chatting on Friday, but I'm gonna run this on Monday. So what did you think of the Oscars last night?

David: Seriously, I think some credit is due to the Academy this year for picking a really well-rounded bunch of nominees

Were great films unjustly ignored? Sure. But, c'mon, this is the Oscars. That's what they do.

The more fair question is, were great films selected? And I think the answer is "yes". Which is nice.

me: Do you think that having your fest fall the weekend after the Spirit Awards and Oscar makes any difference in the larger sense, I mean in the indie film world in general?

David: Well, I do feel sort of like we're clearly part of the new year. I mean, other than WALTZ WITH BASHIR and LOOT, we're showing films that people will be talking about at the end of 2009. And that's our goal, really, to put together a batch of titles that we can sort of plant a flag with and say "These are great. These are important. This is as good a snapshot as any of the nonfiction world in 2009"

me: Was programming different for you this year, considering that you'd spent a great deal of your year working on your own film projects. Did it change the way you thought about the stuff you were seeing?

David: For sure! I'd be watching films thinking about what it was like to do a particular interview, how somebody set up a scene, how many initial characters they'd followed and whittled down to just a few.

I think it give me more sympathy in a general way, but less in a specific way. Like, watching one very successful festival film that got sent our way, I was just like "Really? You couldn't find a tripod for that shot?"

me: It probably also reinforces your perspective on the whole notion of where the line is between fiction and nonfiction, because you're thinking about the construction of the films.

David: Completely. They're all constructed. And I get more entrenched in my belief that it's all story and mystery the more I watch. The mystery is the key - keep an audience wanting to know more, never let them feel fully stable. Stable is boring.

me: Were there films in that regard that were surprising for you that you're showing this year?

David: Well, one film I was deeply suspicious of was this Depeche Mode doc called THE POSTERS CAME FROM THE WALLS. It came in late, and we show VERY few music docs at T/F, so I wasn't expecting a lot. But it was from the production team that did the JOY DIVISION doc, which i liked quite a bit, so I was willing to give it a shot. And I was really impressed. It was never, at any point, what I thought it would be. It wasn't even really a music doc, more of a series of portraits of fandom and obsession, but told really lovingly.

Also would have to mention NECROBUSINESS here - Talk about a mystery! This movie plays like Chinatown. Is it constructed? Sure, it has to be. But I'll take that sort of construction any day over some didactic issue doc.

me: You know, I've been having these conversations lately with people about the way festivals over-program, how a small festival will have 60-80 features. I never really thought about the number of films that you screen, but this year it's just under 40, which seems completely manageable.

David: Yeah, one of my mantras as we're programming is that I would be completely happy with a 25 film fest. Meaning that if in some given year we only found 25 films that we could really get behind, well, that would be ok. I just want to show movies I love.

True/False 2009: 38 Features Set for the 6th Edition

Last week, the folks at the True/False Film Festival announced their 2009 lineup.  Late this afternoon, general tickets went on sale, and by 11 PM central time, 39 screenings had sold out of all their reserved tickets, including a 5:30 PM screening on Sunday, March 1, that is currently labeled "TBA".

You read that right.

Such are the joys - for visiting filmmakers and guests, as well as audiences - of True/False, where an engaged, enthusiastic community rallies around a a smartly curated mix of nonfiction.  Yes, I'm biased - the full disclosure could fill up the side of Jesse Hall (in short summary, I went to school in Columbia and am quite fond of it, I'm co-directing a film with one of T/F's co-founders/directors, I'm hosting a panel for the third year running and I'm screening clips from CONVENTION this year), and if you can't take my word for it (and if that "TBA" screening doesn't explain it all to you) then by all means, check out the other testimonials.

Meanwhile, 38 features (along with three shorts programs) will unspool in Columbia starting in just 15 days.  After the break, with the proverbial "descriptions provided by the festival", this year's True/False slate.  We will, of course, be covering the fest on the ground in Columbia, MO.

True/False 2009: Kim Longinotto Named True Vision Award Recipient

Acclaimed filmmaker Kim Longinotto, the winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the recent Sundance Film Festival for her latest film, ROUGH AUNTIES, has been named as the recipient of the True/False Film Festival's sole prize - the True Vision Award, "given annually to a filmmaker (or filmmakers) whose work shows a dedication to the creative advancement of the art of nonfiction filmmaking."

It's the first time in True/False's 6-year history that a female filmmaker has received the award.

According to the local Columbia Missourian, at least three other Sundance titles are amongst this year's line-up, which is scheduled to be announced Tuesday morning: Eric Daniel Metzgar's REPORTER, Laura Gabbert's NO IMPACT MAN and crowd pleaser THE YES MEN SAVE THE WORLD.

First Announced Title of 2009 True/False - BURMA VJ

BURMA VJ, the film that swept grand jury prizes last month in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, and which makes its stateside debut next month in Park City, has been named as the True Life Fund Film at next year's True/False. 

Local hero Pete Bland has the scoop at his Cool Dry Place Blog:

"In BURMA VJ — which took the top prize at the celebrated documentary festivals in Amsterdam and Copenhagen and also will screen at Sundance — director Anders Østergaard weaves together footage shot by undercover Burmese reporters during the "Saffron Revolution" of 2007. Their stories were then broadcast by the outlawed Democratic Voice of Burma.

As has been their goal with the True Life Fund films since 2007, organizers are hoping to raise money for the producer, director or subject of or cause covered in each documentary. This time around, True/False hopes to deliver more than $10,000 to the DVB, which would allow the group to purchase better equipment and focus on other vital needs.

T/F's David Wilson and Camellia Cosgray tell it best in the press release: 'This equipment will not only assist these brave journalists in telling the world about their country, but smaller, lighter cameras and microphones could actually mean the difference between life and death for these reporters.'"

Next year's T/F kicks off February 26.  Expect additional titles to be named after Sundance.

2008 IN REVIEW: Emailing with MAN ON WIRE Director James Marsh

As 2008 comes to a close and we try to catch up on some titles that we missed earlier (all the better to formulate our list of favorite films of the year), we're connecting via email with some of the filmmakers behind the year's most noted nonfiction releases.

First up is James Marsh, the director of perhaps the year's most acclaimed film, MAN ON WIRE.  Shortlisted for the Oscars, nominated for the Indie Spirit Awards and in the midst of a nearly clean sweep of the year end critics awards, MAN ON WIRE stormed out of Sundance, was picked up by Magnolia and stands just shy of 3 million dollars at the box office.  It has been, no exaggeration, quite a year for Marsh.

I saw James in Copenhagen last month and he told me that he'd recently moved to Europe from New York, where he'd been based for over a decade.  In our email exchange this weekend, we talk, among other topics, about his move, his film's deft handling of 9/11 and the joys of having Sean Connery invite you and your subject for drinks.

ATWT: One of my favorite things about this time of year is looking over the Sundance line-up, because it's this blank slate/vision of the future.  These are films that will become a big part of the conversation in our community over the next year, but right now they are just these titles.  Going into Sundance last year, what were you feeling? 

James Marsh: Relief. Three previous films had been rejected by Sundance and I was pretty sure MAN ON WIRE would suffer the same fate. Also I was dying to see the film with an audience. It's really the only way you know whether a film actually works. This was the first film I made that I actually liked when I finished it - I guess because I was, and still am, thrilled by what Petit did. As you know, going into the festival the film was completely off the radar and it stayed that way during the festival. That was fine with me - I didn't want the burden of hype and I knew going in that most distributors would be too shortsighted to seek out a film that they weren't being told to see by each other and so it proved. I'm always amazed (aren't we all?) by the kind of films that distributors go after at Sundance and the money they spend. They never seem to learn from their mistakes. You watch, they'll do the same this year.

Heath Ledger died during our first screening so quite a few people left to find out more about that but those that stayed seemed really tuned into the film. At festivals, films are subject to quite withering word of mouth commentary and we did get this growing sense that audiences were enjoying the film and talking about it. I heard people talking about it on the bus - almost apologizing for the fact that it was a doc but that it was definitely worth seeing. That was a pretty nice experience. This year, who knows? I do like the sound of two titles in the World Doc section: BIG RIVER MAN and Kim Longinotto's ROUGH AUNTIES. I really admire her work and I wish her films were better known in the US.

After Sundance, the film played nearly every festival, it seems.  What was your year on the fest circuit like and did you have any favorite experiences?

Well, you're probably right. MAN ON WIRE was promiscuous at film festivals but for me, going to a festival should be a little treat that you allow yourself whilst getting on with the new work.  I've been working on a new documentary project and getting ready to shoot a feature so I did allow myself to go to quite a few festivals and I have lots of great memories. Getting a bit drunk and talking into the early hours with Ellen Kuras at Full Frame, the closing night at True/False and the humbling response from the huge audience there. At Edinburgh, Sean Connery was in the audience and got up and asked a question. He then invited us all out for a drink and I have this great image in my head of Philippe Petit showing James Bond magic tricks at the bar.

If there was one festival that I would recommend to anyone involved or interested in documentary filmmaking, it would be True/False. The whole town is alive with passionate debate about documentaries, the films they show are really well chosen and David (Wilson) and Paul (Sturtz) were brilliant hosts.

Here's what I learnt on my travels: documentaries are the most vibrant and subversive genre in American film culture and that has probably been true for the last 5 years.

Landslide! True/False Co-Director Paul Sturtz Now City Councilman-Elect

Paul Sturtz, the co-director of the True/False Film Festival, has won a landslide victory for election to the Columbia, Missouri city council, ousting an incumbent with about 60% of the vote.

Surprisingly, Sturtz did not run on the promise of "a doc in every pot" but instead ran on a "smart growth" campaign.  From the local Columbia Tribune:

"Sturtz, co-founder of Ragtag Cinema and the True/False documentary film festival, said that after talking with so many voters during his campaign, he also wasn’t surprised at his 2-to-1 margin over Crayton.

'I think I was able to make the connection between putting some common-sense controls on some inefficient development on the fringe of town, and by not doing that, we’re hurting residents in the First Ward, and that’s the kind of connection that Almeta never made," Sturtz said. "This is a gross oversimplification, but she seemed to think that all development was good development, and I’m coming at it from a different angle that talks about stimulating the kind of development that will allow us to have a city we’re all proud of in 20 to 30 years.'"