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.
AFGHAN STAR
Directed by Havana Marking
Modern Afghanistan, where the spectre of the Taliban still looms, finds
unusual unity in an American Idol-style TV show. Some details remain
the same, but no US contestant ever had to deal with death threats for
dancing in public.
AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
Directed by Dan Stone
Great adventure and piratical exploits on the high seas, as the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society attempts to take down illegal whaling
ships.
BIG RIVER MAN
Directed by John Maringouin and co-director Molly Lynch
The incredible-yet-true story of a “superhero” endurance swimmer from
Slovenia. Martin Strel aims to swim the entire Amazon River, ostensibly
to raise awareness of the perils facing the rainforest. What ensues is
a wine-soaked psychedelic rollercoaster a la Apocalypse Now.
BLOOD TRAIL
Directed by Richard Parry
Bosnia, 1993 — Experienced war correspondents Richard Parry and Vaughan
Smith meet a wannabe photographer named Robert King. They proceed to
film him over the next fifteen years, in war zones around the world,
creating this fascinating portrait of life as a frontline journalist.
Sneak preview.
BRONX PRINCESS
Directed by Yoni Brook
A sassy city girl reunites with her father, the chief of a small
African village, in this archetypal fish-out-of-water story. (Plays
with Liess and Tommy.)
BURMA VJ
Directed by Anders Ostergaard
True Life Fund selection. This spine-tingling thriller tracks a
clandestine group of video activists as they use whatever means
necessary to spotlight Burma’s brutal military junta.
CARMEN MEETS BORAT
Directed by Mercedes Stahlenhoef
When the Borat crew came to Glod, Romania, they used people there to
stand in for the fictional Kazakhstan. In this rollicking
slice-of-life, we meet the real-life residents of Glod, including the
forever-dreaming teenager Carmen. Sneak preview.
CRUDE
Directed by Joe Berlinger
A behind-the-scenes, David-and-Goliath legal drama in which Ecuadorian
Amazon residents pursue justice against Chevron/Texaco for two decades
of oil pollution.
EARTH DAYS
Directed by Robert Stone
The director of Guerilla uses stunning archival footage and vivid
testimonies by Stewart Brand and others to capture the lead-up to the
first Earth Day in 1970.
FOOD, INC.
Directed by Robert Kenner
The future of our food is up for grabs, and leading figures such as
writer Michael Pollan and farmer Joel Salatin show us the perils and
promise of what lies ahead. Sneak preview.
FORGETTING DAD
Directed by Rick Minnich
Rick Minnich (Homemade Hillbilly Jam) returns to T/F with a deeply
personal doc about his father, who after a car accident became “the new
Richard,” a man with no memory of his previous life. Sneak preview.
GAEA GIRLS
Directed by Kim Longinotto
A training camp for young Japanese women who want to be pro wrestlers is the setting for this hyper-intense film.
GLASTONBURYKIDS
Directed by Justin Donais
Post-Jackass offspring run amok in a privileged Connecticut suburb.
LOOT
Directed by Darius Marder
One man obsessed with hidden treasure storms the globe seeking lost riches promised by a pair of WWII veterans.“
LOVE ON DELIVERY
Directed by Janus Metz
A Thai marriage pipeline extends from Bangkok to a remote fishing
village in Denmark, where hundreds of Thai women have changed the
fortunes of previously lonely men. Sneak preview.
THE MOSQUE IN MORGANTOWN
Directed by Brittany Huckabee
One woman battles to bring gender equality to her mosque — but some
skeptics believe that she’s only interested in the publicity. Sneak
preview.
NECROBUSINESS
Directed by Fredrik von Krusenstjerna, Monika Sieradzka & Richard Solarz
This richly entertaining true-crime story reveals something’s rotten in
Lodz, Poland, as a ghoulish conspiracy is uncovered involving funeral
directors and ambulance drivers. Sneak preview.
NO IMPACT MAN
Directed by Laura Gabbert & Justin Schein
Two city dwellers go cold turkey from civilization, weaning themselves
off the power grid, agribusiness and other modern conveniences, while
attracting a whirlwind of publicity and an army of naysayers.
O'ER THE LAND
Directed by Deborah Stratman
Deborah Stratman’s freshly minted experimental classic takes us on a
visually stunning tour of men and their toys, from a shooting range to
a rural firehouse.
OCTOBER COUNTY
Directed by Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher
A lush, atmospheric and intimate look at a tender but dysfunctional Upstate New York family. Sneak preview.
OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY
Directed by Michael Orion Scott
Rupert and Kristin try to heal their autistic son by making a
pilgrimage to Mongolia, where shamanism and horse-back riding combine.
THE POSTERS CAME FROM THE WALLS
Directed by Jeremy Deller and Nicholas Abrahams
Fandom as cult, religion, and force field. Fierce followers of
electronic group Depeche Mode — from St. Petersburg to Iran — tell
stories of the band as comfort and salvation.
PRESSURE COOKER
Directed by Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker
A charismatic firecracker of a teacher heats up some of the year’s most
entertaining scenes in this warm and thoroughly enjoyable film about a
Philadelphia high school culinary arts class.
PRODIGAL SONS
Directed by Kimberly Reed
Director Reed returns to her hometown of Missoula, Montana to confront
her own past and that of her adopted brother, who could be the grandson
of Orson Welles.
RISE UP
Directed by Luciano Blotta
Three ambitious musicians — the a capella R&B singer Kemoy, the
privileged Ice, and the ghetto-hardened Turbulence — try to distinguish
themselves on the music-mad island of Jamaica. Sneak preview.
REPORTER
Directed by Eric Daniel Metzgar
Longtime T/F favorite Eric Daniel Metzgar accompanies the crusading
N.Y. Times super-journalist Nicholas Kristof to the Congo, where
Kristoff negotiates warlords and treacherous zones to locate the story
that will change hearts and minds in the West.
ROUGH AUNTIES
Directed by Kim Longinotto
A gutsy group of South African women help rescue abused children in
this intimate masterpiece by 2009’s True Vision Award recipient.
SERGIO
Directed by Greg Barker
This harrowing thriller traces the valiant rescue efforts to save
Sergio Vieira De Mello, the brilliant UN commissioner for human rights,
victim of a truck bombing in Iraq.
SOUNDS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT
Directed by Jamie Johnson
Fifty years after Europe warred on the battlefield, its competitive
spirit is now satisfied by singing contests. With a knack for funny and
moving in equal measure, the film tells the story of the 2007 Junior
Eurovision competition in which pint-sized talents from Cyprus to the
Ukraine sing their hearts out. Sneak preview.
WALTZ WITH BASHIR
Directed by Ari Folman
This animated, mind-blowing doc — one of the year’s most celebrated
films — is a former Israeli soldier’s attempt to make sense of a
massacre of Palestinian civilians, 25 years later.
WAR AGAINST THE WEAK
Directed by Justin Strawhand
This visually stunning history of the American eugenics movement offers
stunning revelations about the links between American geneticists and
Nazis.
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC
Directed by Ondi Timoner
Ondi Timoner’s splashy portrait of Josh Harris, an artist with a flair
for social engineering experiments. In 1999, he spearheaded an
Orwellian commune in which 100 specimens lived in a New York City
basement where their lives were surveilled 24-7.
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD
Directed by Mike Bonanno
The Yes Men are the culture-jamming dynamic duo of our age. Their
latest adventures includes deflating Dow Chemical’s stock price a few
billion dollars in a matter of minutes with a well-timed apology to the
people of Bhopal, India.
Secret Screenings (usually set to premiere at another US festival in the coming months)
Secret Screening Gold
A legal team fights to save a Mexican man, jailed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Secret Screening Green
The daily travails of two poor Brazilian boys are captured in this gorgeously constructed profile.
Secret Screening Red
An intimate, tragic portrait of an Afghani who acted as interpreter, driver and scout for visiting journalists.
Secret Screening Silver
The challenges of aging and patriotism mix in this sensitive portrait
of three senior citizens, who have met every arriving and departing
flight since the beginning of the Iraq War.
Secret Screening Blue
At an Oklahoma prison, inmates put pride on the line as they compete in the nation’s most famous prison rodeo.
Short Film Programs
Extremities
A sensational tour of the world, stopping to hang out with gangsters in
Poland, shoppers in a vast Chinese mall, blind people in Brazil and
coca farmers in Colombia.
I Will Survive
From displacement to language barriers, these five films illustrate the ways people strive for self-preservation.
Oscar-Nominated Shorts
The shadowy figures of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
have ordained these four films as the best shorts of the year. We go to
India to eradicate polio and cleft lips, meet a dispassionate
photographer of doomed men, and relive Martin Luther King’s final days.
Profiling
Intimate portraits of a wide range of characters, from a man who’s
decided to make his epidermis into a living canvas to a woman who lives
in her car.
Thanks for the kind words, AJ. Just a note to any worried passholders (or would-be passholders) our reserve ticket numbers are slightly less than the venue capacity - which means that our mighty "Q" system will get people in at the door.
And, for some perspective, there are 80+ total screenings, so we still have plenty of seats left.
But,yes, we couldn't be happier with ticket reservations so far.
-David
Posted by: David | February 11, 2009 at 10:53 AM
What a terrific line-up of films this year. We had a difficult time deciding which ones to reserve tickets for, since there were so many that looked good! Really excited for BURMA VJ and FORGETTING DAD! Hope to see you there, AJ!
Posted by: Dan | February 11, 2009 at 01:42 PM