True/False Film Fest takes over Columbia

The festival attracted more than 25,000 people.

By Pierce Courchaine

Published March 2, 2010

Film buffs, musicians and locals flooded the streets of downtown Columbia last weekend for the seventh annual True/False Film Fest. The festival's co-director, David Wilson, said more than 25,500 tickets were sold throughout the four-day event.

The festival showed 40 feature-length non-fiction films with subjects ranging from declining honeybee populations to an Iraqi doctor's struggles as a political candidate. Filmmakers from all over the world had their films shown at the festival, and many appeared in person for question and answer sections.

"There was a director who flew in from Sweden last night, and it was really neat to talk to him," volunteer Lindsay Bukiet said. "You wouldn't think Missouri would have such an impressive film festival."

A senior at MU, Bukiet served as the travel intern for True/False. Her duties included booking flights, transportation and hotels for out of town (and out of country) guests and filmmakers.

"A lot of coordination goes into getting them here and making sure nothing interferes with their screenings," Bukiet said. "Or if their flight gets in really late, making sure a driver can get to St. Louis and drive them back here."

True/False utilized the help of 600 volunteers to run the festival. Volunteers received film passes in exchange for 12 to 15 hours of service, which included selling merchandise, ripping tickets and ushering moviegoers to their seats, among other responsibilities.

"I'm constantly impressed by the volunteers," Wilson said.

Monica Germinario, who worked Saturday and Sunday at merchandise tables, said True/False is important to Columbia.

"This is huge," Germinario said while waiting in line for a film. "It kind of brings out the scene in Columbia, especially for the filmmakers I think. They probably had no idea what they were in for."

Many volunteers dressed up as iconic movie characters, such as one man who posed as Jack Sparrow (with appropriate attire, accent and stumble) Thursday night at The Blue Note and Sunday night at Ragtag Cinema.

Although volunteers were hard at work, festival goers could mingle throughout downtown Columbia, seeing films at eight different venues, kick back at True/False-endorsed events and listen to more than 30 live musicians.

Wilson said some of the musical highlights were Free Agents Brass Band from New Orleans and Bramble, a folk band from Salt Lake City.

"This was the first year they came out, but they fit into the fabric of the fest," Wilson said.

Bramble's accordion player, Ian Accord, said even though the band was working, it wanted to see a lot of the films shown at the festival.

"We're not going to catch all the movies we want to catch," Accord said. "There are so many good movies."

In addition to the True/False-sponsored musicians, such as Bramble, many other musicians could be seen playing on the crowded sidewalks of Columbia.

The films were the main draw to the festival. Each film played two or three times and each venue was either sold out or close to it. The Missouri Theatre was full with more than 1,000 people for the 10 a.m. screening of "Waking Sleeping Beauty."

"Honestly, I think every filmmaker felt like they had great screenings," Wilson said.

Wilson said this year's fest was extraordinary but couldn't be compared to the years prior.

"At a certain point I stopped comparing them," Wilson said. "There is a mindset with festivals that each year has to be bigger and better. Part of what makes it extraordinary is there were people whom it was their first True/False."

Extremely pleased with how the festival turned out, Wilson said the only thing that went wrong was out of their control.

"New York City was hit by a giant snowstorm, and it created problems for directors getting out here," Wilson said.

Wilson himself will be traveling to Austin, Texas, to show his short film, "Big Birding Day," a piece about competitive bird watching, at the SXSW film festival. As for True/False, Wilson said the next steps are cleaning up and paying expenses, then getting ready for the 2011 festival.

"Every year I feel like we understand how to do this better," Wilson said. "We're restless. We're intellectually restless and we're always look for new things to do and new challenges, and I think those will manifest themselves in the next year."