True/False Reflections

Posted: March 9, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Special Olympics, True/False | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Last weekend I intended to keep track of every film I watched with a blog, which didn’t work out for many reasons. For one, I saw 13 documentaries last weekend, a bit short of my intended 18 scheduled films, but way too much for me in one weekend.

Here’s the list of films I saw from Thursday to Sunday at True/False in Columbia (I can’t reveal the titles of the secret screenings I attended, as it would jeopardize future True/False festival acquisitions):

  • The Belovs
  • Secret Screening Lavender*
  • 1/2 Revolution
  • Secret Screening Blue*
  • Secret Screening Orange*
  • Herman’s House
  • The Queen of Versailles
  • Me @ The Zoo
  • The Vanishing Spring Light
  • Detropia
  • Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
  • Bully
  • Undefeated

My three favorite films were Undefeated, Detropia and Bully, in that order, I think. I had very, very high expectations for Undefeated, and I was not disappointed. Dan Lindsay, T.J. Martin and Rich Middlemas had more than enough footage (upwards of 500 hours) to tell a compelling human-interest story that transcends the sports genre.

Watching all of these films gave me a sharper sense of varying documentary styles. Some worked better than others. A few films (whose names I won’t divulge) weren’t quite as good as I would have liked them to be. That’s part of the challenging of making a documentary—crafting a coherent, fascinating film from hundreds of hours of film. I don’t have that much footage for my Special Olympics documentary, so the challenge will be even greater.

Keeping Track of True/False

Posted: March 1, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: New Releases, social issues, True/False | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Thursday, March 1

Three years to the day I last attended a True/False event, I hung my Lux pass around my neck and trekked about a mile from campus to Ragtag. This, then, is a chronicle of my T/F experience. It’s my first, and most likely my last, so I intend to make the most of it.

Based on my previous T/F experience, I was expecting all-out anarchy at Ragtag, but it was pretty orderly. I had a pretty good roasted chicken sandwich from Uprise Bakery, and I settled into my seat right on time for the film. The Belovs, my first film of the night, is a 20-year-old documentary about a Russian family. It was interesting, but not as in-depth as I would have liked. I learned later that the director had only three hours of footage with which to make a one-hour film, so that pretty much changed my opinion.

The second film was a secret screening, and it was my favorite of the night. I can’t write any more, as it is embargoed from online discussion.

For the third film, I walked to The Blue Note, a place I’d never been despite my living in Columbia for almost four years. 1/2 Revolution was, by far, the most thrilling and viscerally engaging, but it lacked visual consistency. Different cameras of different quality added a grittiness to the film that at times overshadowed the subject of the film itself. I’m not sure if this was intentional, but it was a little distracting. Tomorrow’s first film starts at noon.

True/False: Can I See All of Them?

Posted: February 10, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Award Winners, New Releases, True/False | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Earlier this week, the True/False Film Fest released its schedule for this year’s four-day documentary extravaganza. For the first time in three years, I’ll be attending the festival. (I missed it in 2010 because it was the same weekend as the Academy Awards and last year because I was in Washington, D.C.)

Courtesy of True/False

Not only that, but I also received a pass for one of my Christmas presents last year, so I’m going to try to get to as many films as possible. And that’s my problem…I want to go to as many as possible, but there are simply too many of them. I tend to favor documentaries that embrace reality, rather than those that insist upon their own creativity and artistic license. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate these films, but they’re simply not my cup of tea. At any rate, this is my first film festival experience of any kind, and I intend to make it to as many films as possible.

As I’m in the process of putting together a documentary of my own (with my peers), I hope these films might provide me with the creative energy to make our project interesting and fresh.

I have a preliminary schedule of films, but I’m wondering—are there any documentaries at 2012 True/False that I simply MUST see?