Returned to Los Angeles late last night after nearly a week back in Columbia, Missouri for this year's (fourth annual) True/False Film Festival. I had meant to blog regularly during the fest, but was kept from my pledge by a combination of familial illness, crazy weather (gusting winds, snow and 60 degree days) and the general sense that you might be missing something if you take a breath for too long. Luckily, the fact that the town is full of, for lack of a better word, journalists - did you know that Columbia has more journalists and hospital beds per capita than any other city in America? - there have been numerous ways to get your T/F fix online, including the fest's official and unofficial blogs, the local Missourian newspaper (just get past its sad web design circa 1997), as well as the full compliment of doc bloggers - Sarah Jo Marks, Joel Heller and Agnes Varnum (Agnes already has her pictures up and Joel's got podcast interviews with festival programmer David Wilson and editor Yana Gorskayana). Agnes also has her recap up over at Indiewire.
But the best nonstop coverage of the fest has been from the Columbia Daily Tribune and, in a town full of writers and reporters, the guy with the biggest national and international reach - Pete Bland. I was a fan of Pete's blog before I met him at last year's fest - both because it's a nice connection to a place I used to live and because he's got a great pop culture sensibility - but it's been great hanging out with him the past couple years. He's got some nice things to say regarding About A Son, too, which I'm quite touched by.
Comparing this year's fest to last year's is a little tough, since I had such an amazing time last year, but on most levels, it appeared to be a great leap forward for T/F. Ticket sales are be way up once again and thankfully it seems like that is spurred by genuine interest and attendance, not just the sheer adding of venues and days (I hate that many fests seem to be chasing increased attendance as something to show off to their board or for PR while simultaneously sacrificing what makes film festivals great in the first place.) Filmmakers seem to have gotten the word that T/F is an important and truly communal experience - so many films were here straight from Sundance - In the Shadow of the Moon, The Devil Came on Horseback, War/Dance, Manda Bala (and I can't tell you how much hand wringing goes on behind the scenes with filmmakers worried about what their first showing after a Sundance or a Toronto "says" about their film).
Various illnesses kept me from seeing as many films as I'd like to have seen, but of those that I saw (and am permitted to talk about publicly - oh, the pesky secret screenings), I was blown away by Pernille Rose Grønkjær's amazing film The Monastery, which previously took the Joris Ivens award at IDFA and had its US premiere at Sundance. As great documentaries often go, The Monastery is a small story extremely well told, with a central figure - Mr. Vig - that should go down in history as one of the great characters of nonfiction film. But it is Grønkjær's filmmaking - and her relationships, both on camera and off - that make the film as good as it is. Look for The Monastery to be remembered later in the year come awards season and for years to come.
David Sington, director of In the Shadow of the Moon - the opening night film at T/F07, with Pernille Rose Grønkjær, director of The Monastery, at the closing night volunteer bash.
Pernille also joined me in a panel discussion on Saturday at the Artisan coffee house in which we, along with Miss Navajo director Billy Luther and subject Crystal Frazier & Running Stumbled producer Molly Lynch, discussed the relationship between filmmaker and subject. What I found particularly interesting about the films in question were the varying timeframes for making the films - 5 years for the Monastery, 3 years for Miss Navajo and 2 weeks for Running Stumbled. It highlighted that shooting nonfiction is neither stylistically nor logistically uniform.
Running Stumbled's Molly Lynch with filmmaker/writer/musician Bob Massey at the opening night party.
This year's True/False offered a number of new programs, some of which were lighthearted and some of which were quite serious. One of the latter initiatives involved the True Life Fund screening - a secret advance look at an upcoming film about a South African orphanage (I saw it and it's great, by the way). The True Life Fund hopes to raise thousands of dollars each year for a worthy and needy documentary subject and seems to be a great way for doc film fans to become more involved, particularly in a socially conscious town like Columbia. In fact, more than 1000 people came out on a Saturday afternoon for this secret screening, and another packed house greeted Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's The Devil Came on Horseback the next day. Clearly, Columbia is interested in and attuned to world issues in a way that most (if not all) the rest of the country is not. More than once I heard filmmakers wonder whether there was another city in the entire country that could pull off this level of interest in serious, issue-driven, international films. The consensus seemed to be that there was not.
Producer Teddy Leifer and director Paul Taylor of this year's True Life Fund recipient with Mark Aitken, director of the short Until When You Die.
T/F07 kicked off on a less serious note with the first (of what one hopes will be annual) March March - a parade down Columbia's 9th Street from one large venue - the Blue Note - to another - the Missouri Theatre. Once the parade, complete with this year's mascots - the ivory-billed woodpecker and the giant squid - made it's way down the boulevard, the happy crowd was greeted by a free form performance by the Chicago punk rock marching band Mucca Pazza. It was, how to say, pretty amazing.
Mucca Pazza was back on Saturday night for the annual concert at the Blue Note, which was headlined by one of my favorite bands, The Apples in Stereo. No surprise, they blew the lid off the place.
But perhaps the musical act I was most excited to see in Columbia was Olympia, Washington's own The Pasties. Kendl and Joe & the gang (they are now a 6-piece) came into my life just over a year ago when we filmed them for About A Son. Their performances at True/False were a great reminder (even if I didn't necessarily need one) of why I fell in love with them during shooting and it was so great to be able to introduce them and to know that they were seeing the film for the first time.
The Pasties are actually out on tour and are due to be down in Austin for some hot SXSW action next week.
Music at True/False (from top) - The Apples in Stereo invite their tourmates to the stage in a big, rockin' finale at The Blue Note; fresh into town, The Pasties stir things up at the Artisan coffee house and, later, Pasties' Kendl WInter and Joe Capoccia join me for beers at the not-so-secret late night afterparty.
More follow-up soon on True/False in our semi-regular Catching Up feature. But for now, big congrats to David and Paul on a most excellent fourth edition. I look forward to being back in Columbia next year for round 5.
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