Eyes Wide Open

Who will be the biggest lush at the T/F festival this year? Who will pass out in an alley in a dumpster? Who will inappropriately make out on a dance floor? Who will stay at Shakespeare's way past closing time?

We're all gathering soon to watch great movies and enjoy great conversation, but let's face it: the parties at T/F are just as much fun as the films.

Send in your sightings, rumors and unverified facts to us at truefalsegossip@gmail.com. We'll publish the hearsay along with the cold hard "truth."

Another news round-up...

The Columbia Daily Tribune's Pete Bland gave his column inches over to the sounds of True/False in today's installment of Cool Dry Place. Also, links to some of the talent scheduled to grace stages throughout the festival can be found on his blog.

Annie Nelson, also of the Trib, did a dandy of a write up in Sunday's Ovation about the folks behind the scenes of T/F.

(Remember, you can keep tabs of all the Tribune's coverage here.)

Joe Williams, film critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, give his own shout-out to True/False.

Finally, if you're around Columbia, you can pick up a copy of MOVE magazine for its T/F teasers. I'd link to it here, but the latest issue on the web dates back to October.

T/F ice breaker

We've got a bit of time to kill before the fest kicks into gear, so why don't you help out by sharing the best/worst of your T/F experience to date. I'll start:

Best: T/F 2004 Opening night. To see the Missouri Theatre packed and this crazy idea finally come to fruition...I cried.

Worst: It's a tie between:

• T/F 2005. Bean tits. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, count your everlovin' blessings.)
  
• T/F 2006. That damn bee.
  

Your turn...

From Fact to. . .fiction?

The King of Kong, playing at 10:30, Saturday, March 3rd at the Forrest Theatre is a documentary about two men: one trying to set the world record high score for Donkey Kong, and another trying to stop him. (Sort of a similar set up, dramatically, to Air Guitar Nation, an Air Guitar Nation with joysticks if you will.) The movie also introduces us to an octogenarian obsessed with the video game Q-bert. Also: The King of Kong is going to be made into a feature film. Kong's director Seth Gordon is taking on the transformation from fact to fiction himself. You may recall a similar situation a few years ago, when Dogtown and Z-Boys, a 2001 documentary about skateboarders in Southern California was adapted into a feature film called Lords of Dogtown.

Trailers and teasers...

To get a better sense of what's on tap for T/F 2007, here are some trailers and interviews about the movies coming to BoCoMo the first weekend in March:

Some trailers:
Air Guitar Nation (Fri., 3/2 10 pm @ FT)
American Shopper (Sun., 3/4 7:30 pm @ MT)
The Devil Came On Horseback (Sun., 3/4 1:30 pm @ MT)
Kurt Cobain About a Son (Sun., 3/4 1 pm @ BN)
Raiders: The Adaptation (download) (Sun, 3/4 3:30 pm @ BN)
Radiant City (Sat, 3/3 3:30 pm @ BN)
Row Hard No Excuses (Sat, 3/3 10 am @ RT)
The Third Monday in October (Sun, 3/4 10:30 am @ BN)
War Dance (Fri., 3/2 7:00 pm @ FT)


An interview with David Sington (director) and Dave Scott (astronaut) and their involvement in "In the Shadow of the Moon."

*(MT = Missouri Theatre; FT = Forrest Theater @ the Tiger Hotel; BN = The Blue Note; RT = Ragtag)

These faces will be familiar to you soon

A vidcast. On a blog. Both are worth your time.

Seriously. Take a few minutes to go over the Joel Heller's blog, Docs that Inspire. You'll find posts and podcasts featuring a number of the directors who will be in town for T/F 2007 - such as Marco Williams. Marco is going to be back at T/F with his new film Banished. He was here at the inaugural True/False with his earlier film Two Towns of Jasper.

Banished explores a dark part of American history - the white-washing of American towns between 1864 and 1920. During that time, communities in Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee and Georgia expelled all of the black residents. Williams take a look at these towns and their residents today - towns that decades later remain virtually all white. I'm glad to see that this film is coming to T/F especially considering that one of the town's featured in the film - Pierce City, MO - is not too far out our own backdoor.

Other "Meet the Directors" posts on Joel's site worth ingesting before you find your way to True/False: Enemies of Happiness (Eva Mulvad), and War Dance (Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine).

What's the story of your life?

Have you seen the 3 new T/F 2007 ad spots? I'm a big fan...

Did anyone see co-festival director David Wilson on Pepper & Friends yesterday? I'm sorry to say I missed it. I wonder why Paul and Uncle James never come to the fest?

T/F in the News

At T-minus 14 days and counting, T/F is starting to get its due in the news.

Pete Bland's back with his T/F blog and it sounds like the Tribune is trying to do a little better with their overall coverage this year. And with the streets of Columbia seething with journalism students, you'll see a fair amount in the Missourian, too. Today's coverage dealt with ticket sales and the like.

And we can't forget the piece in February's issue of Inside Columbia magazine.

I'm sure I've overlooked a few things, but it's a start.

Dance Dance Dance to the Radio

Well, okay it's not that kind of radio: you can't dance to it. But This American Life is mandatory weekend listening for storytelling fans. Each week, host Ira Glass spins tales of, um American life. It's really hard to describe if you've never heard the show--and if you haven't, I suggest you start with the staff favorites page, found at the link above, and go from there.

If you have heard This American Life before, you may know that Glass and his staff have been working on a TV version of their radio show.

On Friday, March 2nd at 8 pm, True False will show two films at Ragtag: Zoo, a movie about a man in Seattle and his relationship with a horse, (we'll discuss this movie later in a separate post) and Joe, a segment from the new This American Life TV show, which will premiere on Showtime in March. Will a radio show be able to make the transition to television? Here's an interview with Glass to help whet your appetite.

Less Absurd Than Figure Skating?

Let me be the first to say that I don't exactly understand air guitar. (I think this is a personal thing: I'm a drummer, and I totally understand air drumming.) Air Guitar Nation will change all that. The doc introduces us to two young men, both trying to soar to the top of the air guitar universe: C. Diddy, (pictured above) who dresses up in a samurai outfit, (complete with a Hello Kitty, um, breastplate) and Bjorn Turoque, whose website proclaims is "the second best air guitarist in the world." The movie goes all the way to the world air guitar championships in Finland (of course the world air guitar championships are in Finland: where else would they be?) where C. Diddy and Bjorn compete against air guitarists from around the world. The trailer, available on the film's website, suggests that air guitar is a performance art, worthy of intense study and practice.

Here's a video of C. Diddy in action. And here is a video interview with director Alexandra Lipsitz.

For all of you air drumming fans out there, here's a video of a guy in Ohio doing his thing to the AC/DC song, "For Those About To Rock, We Salute You." With knives instead of drumsticks.


Air Guitar Nation shows at 10 p.m. on Friday, March 2nd at the Forrest Theatre.

Opening Night Film

T/F made a timely pick for their opening night film, In The Shadow of the Moon. The doc contains interviews with ten astronauts who walked on the moon back in the 60's and 70's. It also features rare NASA archival footage. We've all read about Lisa Nowak, the Shuttle astronaut who made headlines this past week for her antics involving pepper spray and a non- stop drive from Houston to Orlando. A sad story, but one that has triggered plenty of talk in the papers about what happens to astronauts after they get back home to Earth. Sounds like the film will help answer some of those questions.

Also, I may as well pass on my favorite related NASA website. Your tax dollars at work. Enjoy.

Astronomy Picture of The Day

Harry, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret...

I know I should be patient and appreciate what's on slate for T/F 2007*, but I can't help myself. Why? See for yourself.

Right now I'm of a mind that they should just book it. Sight unseen. Who cares if it sucks. I just like imagining the possibilities of David Lynch at T/F 2008.


*The full schedule is supposed to be posted today. I'll believe it when I see it.

We need a little Sugar in this here town

Here's one reason (of many) you don't want to miss the No Quarter Party:

DJ Colleen Crumbcake!!!

(Another old townie we're bringing back into the fold.)

Elsewhere

BoCoMo columnist Pete Bland always gives T/F a fair shake in his weekly column and on his blog Cool Dry Place. He even took his employer to task last year calling the Columbia Daily Tribune's scant print coverage of the festival "a news-judgement fumble." In his post-fest wrap-up, he concluded:

If there were any doubts remaining that the True/False Film Festival has become the most identifiable and important annual cultural event in Columbia, the third installment of the documentary showcase emphatically erased — no, obliterated — them this past weekend.

It will be interesting to see how the paper responds this year.

Another web presence to keep an eye on is AJ Schnack. He'll be in town this year with his film Kurt Cobain About A Son. It is a homecoming of sorts for AJ who is an alum of the Missouri School of Journalism. He's also an alum of the festival having been in attendance last year. It's worth taking a minute to read his post-fest wrap-up from last year. I think he liked what he saw. (While you're at it, check out what he had to say about Sundance '07. You just might see a familiar face.)

No doubt there will be plenty more where these came from...but don't just read about it. Check it out for yourself.

Tasting Menu

To whet your T/F appetite, may I recommend a few of the panels podcast from Sundance this year (each of which includes shorts/films/filmmakers gracing T/F '07):

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love TV - "This American Life": Reloaded

"ACT I: Ten years ago, Ira Glass was told about a few "laws of radio." He mostly ignored them and, with his collaborators on This American Life, went on to resuscitate a flagging medium and reinvent storytelling.

ACT II: What happens when listeners become viewers? The iconic show makes a move. Do not adjust your TV. You are watching This American Life.

ACT III: Images--the road to a re-conceived show was paved with good intentions, failed experiments, and lessons learned, which will be discussed.

ACT IV: Stories from the new This American Life. Ira Glass, Chris Wilcha, and Adam Beckman get together to discuss the changes in This American Life through the years. Recorded January 24th at the Prospector Theater."

How "Movies that Matter" Can Matter

"If "movies that matter" really matter, what does it take for them to be change agents in our society? How do you get important issues like genocide, climate change, and the war out of the theatre and into national focus? Can an environment be created that encourages activism and connects film to the tools of change (lawmakers, grass-roots efforts, and popular culture)? Documentary filmmakers Sean Fine (War/Dance), Judith Helfand (Everything's Cool), and Rory Kennedy (Ghosts of Abu Ghraib) and journalist and author Eric Schlosser, Gayle Smith from the Center from American Progress, Brian Steidle, the subject of The Devil Came on Horseback, and Diane Weyermann of Participant Productions join moderator Helene Cooper from the New York Times for a thought-provoking look at the juncture between film and social change. Copresented by the Center for American Progress. Recorded JAnuary 22nd at the Prospector Theater."

The Times, Did They A-Change?

"What happened to counterculture? Why does it look different today than it did in the 1960s? Some may argue that its ideological underpinnings have been eroded; others that it is routinely absorbed by the machinery of mass media. But what does the term really mean, and how does it relate to politics, activism, and protest? What about race, culture, music, and film? Join moderator B. Ruby Rich, author Todd Gitlin, filmmakers Brett Morgen (Chicago 10) and Julien Temple (Joe Strummer), investigative satirist Paul Krassner, and others for this stimulating discussion. Recorded live Saturday, January 20 at the Prospector Theater."

You can download them from iTunes (linked from the Sundance page (see "LISTEN: Festival Panel Podcasts")).

T-minus 26 days and counting...

So, the kick off of T/F is less than a month away. (Please don't point out that February is the shortest of the months, either. That's really not helpful.)

For anyone that has anything to do with the festival, this is crunch time. It's really amazing to have a view from behind the scenes to see just what goes into getting this off the ground every year. Last minute film negotiations nipping at the heels of program production. Endless web updates sent and posted. Filmmakers' flights booked around unwieldy schedules. Music arranged. Sponsorships finalized. Tech teams assembled. A few hundred volunteers coordinated to cover every imaginable task. (Seriously. This has been known to include scraping cow shit off the walls of a sale barn.) Passes made, corners rounded. Tickets printed, orders filled. And if you were out on 9th St. today, you might have noticed the T/F banners being hung from the lampposts.

It's well-orchestrated chaos, if such a thing exists.