The 2010 True/False Film Festival got started on Friday with a day full of screenings and the usual March March parade down the main drag of Columbia, MO.
True/False is five this year and like any youngster it’s coming into its own — getting taller and more rambunctious faster than you had realized. Lead by Paul Sturz and David Wilson, True/False boasts an impressive slate of docs — some better known than others, but all an expression of this years’ festival motto: “There Are No Small Stories.”
I think as a philosophy that holds true — any programmer/curator will tell you that some of the most affecting films are not always about huge “issues” but individual lives through which we see larger truths about our world. Films like Circo, Antoine and When We Were Boys being prime examples.
There are also no small audiences here in Columbia. T/F originally started out as the “little festival that could,” but now can safely boast that it has some of the most engaged/excited audiences on the U.S. circuit. True/False is awarding its 2010 True Vision award to filmmaker Laura Poitras, director of the Oscar-nominated My Country, My Country and The Oath, winner of the 2010 Sundance Award for Outstanding Cinematography. My Country, My Country is screening during theTrue/False, as is The Oath.
I’ll be blogging and tweeting from T/F for the next few days and send my regards to all the would-be attendees who were stranded on the East Coast by the blizzard on Thursday: Wish you were here!