A Paradise For Fans Of Documentary Films

For twenty years, the True/False Film Festival has convened in downtown Columbia, Missouri. Along the way, it’s become the biggest documentary festival in the United States. Many an Oscar nominee began its journey to the world stage after premiering at True/False.

The buy-in by the local community is inspiring. The festival runs six to eight venues simultaneously for three and half days to bring as many documentary shorts and features to audiences as possible. Local churches allow their worship spaces to be converted into screening rooms. Local bars erect screens and install sound systems to become theater venues. It’s a grass roots effort to transform Columbia into the Sundance of middle America.

Curation runs deep at True/False. From the major awards players of the future to small personal video essays, the programmers mine the world of documentary films to bring a wide array of subject matter and film-making styles to the True/False crowds. Kudos especially to the programmers who find the wealth of foreign documentaries that play the festival every year, making True/False a rich cultural and sociological melting pot of content.

If you’re a documentary fan, plan to be in Columbia, Missouri the first weekend of March 2024 for the 21st edition of this amazing festival. Here are some of the highlights of the 2023 festival that will be hitting theaters and/or streaming services later this year:

Bobi Wine: Ghetto President: In the United States we’ve elected The Terminator as Governor of California, and a former reality show host spent four years as our president. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that celebrities and performers have been political candidates in other countries. Bobi Wine: Ghetto President chronicles the rise and fall of the Ugandan pop star turned reform candidate, Bobi Wine, and his efforts to unseat Yoweri Museveni who’s controlled that African country for over 35 years. The film is a “boots on the ground” look at Bobi Wine’s campaign and Museveni’s efforts to thwart the will of the people and suppress anything that exceeds the mere appearance of a democracy. Directors Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp embedded themselves with Wine’s campaign and chronicled the unlawful arrests, assaults by government troops and the intimidation faced by the young candidate and his inner circle as they try to change the course of a nation. The film is a moving portrait of an inspiring young man and a reminder of the tenuous contract between a government and its citizens if democracy is going to prevail.

Art Talent Show: Directors Tomas Bojar and Adela Komrzy pull back the curtain on the admissions process at a prestigious Czech art institute. Unlike many films that have come before it, Art Talent Show does not dwell on the stories of the individual students applying to the famed school hoping to realize their dreams. Instead, the filmmakers turn their cameras on the faculty members charged with conducting the entrance exams and deciding who merits a seat in their classrooms. From spontaneous drawing and painting assignments to one-on-one interviews where students attempt to explain why they deserve admission over their peers, the audience experiences the rigors of the application process firsthand. Sometimes serendipity is the difference between a good documentary and a great one. Bojar and Komrzy have been blessed with an eccentric cast of faculty members who are fascinating and often hilarious. Spending time with them is a pleasure. I hated to see this one end.

The Stroll: In the 1980’s and 90’s before a wave of gentrification marked the end of an era, New York City’s Meatpacking District was where dozens of transwomen earned their livings as sex workers. The women were seen as “unfit” for traditional places of employment, so they found a sense of community and a livelihood by working “The Stroll”. Director Kristen Lovell recounts her days on the streets of the Meatpacking District and the stories of her friends and colleagues who faced police harassment and violence during an era where trans rights weren’t even a consideration. The Stroll is powerful filmmaking that asks an important question: What if you had to fight every day for the right to simply be yourself? The Stroll was made with the support of HBO Documentary Films and will appear on that streaming service later this year.

Paradise: In 2021 the increasing heat in Siberia sparked wildfires in the forests of Sakha. Though only sparsely populated, there are numerous villages in the area where citizens live and work. Director Alexander Abaturov chronicles the efforts of the village of Shologon to fight off the wildfires until the onset of the annual rainy season. The government is indifferent to their plight. The cost of fighting the fires far exceeds the fair market value of the property in jeopardy, so no assistance will be provided by the government. Paradise effectively documents the importance of the individual in the face of institutional failure while also examining the unprecedented effects of climate change in the distant corners of our world. You can’t help thinking that this will be an annual battle that the people of Shologon will eventually lose.

Time Bomb Y2K: As the year 2000 approached, computer scientists and programmers became concerned that technology might falter when the two-digit year became 00. What if all the essential computers of the world just failed to come online at the turn of the millennium? Bank balances, stock markets, air travel and hundreds of other data-based industries could be impacted. The concern became known as Y2K, and it spawned doomsayers and prophets along with think tanks and problem solvers. Time Bomb Y2K from HBO Documentary Films takes a look at the cultural hysteria and very real concerns created by the rolling back of those two simple digits. Directors Brian Becker and Marley McDonald have exhaustively researched their subject and condensed it into a breezy, often funny, look at recent world history. Time Bomb Y2K isn’t a talking head documentary seen through the lens of hindsight. Instead, it wisely uses the interviews and news stories of that era to give the film a real-time, “you are there” feel as the fears of the crisis unfold. The true MVP of the film are editors Marley McDonald and Maya Mumma who’ve taken an avalanche of archival material and crafted a sleek, lean film that never falters. (Warning to middle-aged viewers: this film will make you feel old, really old.)

How to Have an American Baby: The abuse of American immigration laws takes many forms. The most common is immigrants illegally crossing the border to obtain employment in this country. How to Have an American Baby explores the many legal benefits that come with being born in America and the ruses people employ to guarantee their children are born in the U.S. The film specifically sheds light on the “maternity hotel” and “birth tourism” industry where women from predominantly Asian countries enter the U.S. (legally or illegally) in the sixth or seventh month of their pregnancies and simply wait it out until their child is “accidentally” born in America. It’s like human trafficking with room service. Director Leslie Tai takes a well-rounded look at the subject from the birth mothers themselves to the proprietors of the maternity hotels to the effects these “baby mills” may have on the neighborhoods in which they’re operating. How to Have an American Baby is a solid piece of film journalism. It gives a balanced look at issues with which many of us are unfamiliar and allows the audience to form its own opinions.