The 2018 True/False Film Fest Lineup

Around every corner is a new and revealing story. In the case of True/False, you never know if it will come in the form of a film, music performance, art installation, or discussion with a filmmaker or attendee about the truths and untruths around us.

The four-day festival in Columbia, MO is one of the premier documentary film festivals in the United States. The festival has attracted new and returning talent over the years – even high-profile names like Spike Lee, who attended simply to see a short film made by three Missouri School of Journalism students in 2016. You can watch the short film here. One of the most intriguing elements of the festival is that the festival encourages films that walk the line between nonfiction and fiction (hence, the title of the festival). Previous lineups included fictional films like Richard Linklater’s BOYHOOD and the 2012 horror smash V/H/S – both of which play around with non-fiction elements. Director Bart Layton’s AMERICAN ANIMALS, a fictional caper film that includes interviews with the actual people that were involved in the true story, is one of the films that take this approach in this year’s lineup.

This approach to their lineup is just one of the unique aspects that sets this festival apart from others. They entwine many forms of art into the festival. From international musical acts performing before film screenings (known as buskers) to multi-media art installations throughout the city, it’s clear that this isn’t just a film festival. This year’s visual theme is WHETHER | WEATHER. As they go on to describe, “weather and whether are two of the more evocative words in the English language and both words converse with today’s political and meteorological climate. The future is unclear, but these visual artists conjure thoughtful observations and insightful commentary from this prompt.” Just like the breakdown of the rigid lines of what makes a documentary, co-creators Paul Sturtz and David Wilson have crafted a festival that has naturally evolved into a unique anomaly, encouraging attendees to reconsider the role and structure of a film festival.

The 2018 lineup includes a number of film premieres, recent hits from the Sundance Film Festival, and of course, a few secret screenings which have become a tradition of the fest. Some of the standouts of the 40 features selected this year include the world premiere of activist filmmakers Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll’s film AMÉRICA, Morgan Neville (director of Oscar-winner 20 FEET FROM STARDOM) delivers WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? about TV legend Fred Rogers, a film about a black lesbian strip called SHAKEDOWN that’s already being described as a “lo-fi MAGIC MIKE XXL,” the unbelievable true story and 2018 Sundance critical hit THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS, and the long-delayed film about controversial musician M.I.A. titled MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. These are but a few of the films I’m looking forward to seeing this year.

The 15th True/False Film Fest will take place March 1st – 4th in Columbia, Missouri. For more information, please visit truefalse.org. You can take a look at the entire lineup below.  Make sure to check back for my reviews during and after the festival.

Adriana’s Pact (dir. Lissette Orozco; 2017)

The director idolized her glamorous aunt, whose political past holds dark secrets. (Presented by the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy)


América (dirs. Chase Whiteside & Erick Stoll; 2018)

A colorful trio of Mexican brothers are called home to take care of their grandmother in this playful and tender family portrait.


American Animals (dir. Bart Layton; 2018)

A group of larcenous college students obsess about freeing a rare edition of Audubon’s “Birds of America” in this white-knuckled heist film.


António e Catarina (dir. Cristina Haneș; 2017)

Under cover of the night “António” and “Catarina” tiptoe around each other in this introspective character study.


Artemio (dir. Sandra Luz López Barroso, 2017)

In this lushly photographed film, an Americanized mother and son return to their Mexican village where the telephone becomes a lifeline.


Bisbee ’17 (dir. Robert Greene; 2018)

Robert Greene creatively reimagines a dark chapter in labor history when organizing miners were sent packing.


Black Mother (dir. Khalik Allah; 2018)

A spiritual journey through Jamaica, the island in the sun, a place of unparalleled resilience and beauty.


Caniba (dirs. Verena Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor; 2017)

This disturbing slice-of-life probes the limits of our understanding of Issei Sagawa, an admitted murderer and cannibal, and his caretaker brother Jun.


Combat Obscura (dir. Miles Lagoze; 2018)

The daily lives of Marines in Afghanistan as filmed by active duty combat cameramen from the ultimate insider’s perspective.


Crime + Punishment  (dir. Stephen Maing; 2018)

Inside the extraordinary “NYPD 12,” renegade cops bravely resisting corruption and racial profiling.


The Family (dir. Rok Biček; 2017)

Young Matej just can’t seem to catch a break – but now he must rise to the occasion of being a father.


Flight of a Bullet (dir. Beata Bubenec; 2017)

Opening with a kidnapping at gunpoint, this single-shot film finds its director, alone, embedded with a group of threatening Ukrainian soldiers.


La Flor de la Vida (dirs. Adriana Loeff & Claudia Abend; 2017)

Introverted Gabriella and extroverted Aldo are at a crossroads in their five-decade-old marriage.


Gabriel and the Mountain (dir. Fellipe Barbosa; 2017)

Brazilian director Fellipe Barbosa retraces his adventurous friend’s last days in Africa with the help of the real people who met him.


Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (dir. Sophie Fiennes; 2017)

From Jamaican family dinner to the world stage, iconic Grace Jones magically dances between down-to-earth moments and pure transcendence.  


Hale County This Morning, This Evening (dir. RaMell Ross; 2018)

Inventing a new film language, this film fearlessly reimagines the way black lives are portrayed on-screen through the stories of two young men in Hale County, Alabama.


Kinshasa Makambo (dir. Dieudo Hamadi; 2018)

True Vision honoree Dieudo Hamadi follows courageous young revolutionaries seeking to wrest control of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Presented by Restoration Eyecare)


Love Means Zero (dir. Jason Kohn; 2017)

Anti-hero Nick Bollettieri, the quintessential tennis coach of the last 40 years, sports an ego that knows no bounds, causing a rift with celebrated student Andre Agassi.


Lovers of the Night (dir. Anna Frances Ewert; 2018)

Seven Irish monks, holding on faithfully to their fragile monastery, confide their most tender secrets.


Makala (dir. Emmanuel Gras; 2017)

In this spectacular and eventful journey, Kabwita hand-delivers charcoal to a faraway marketplace against epic odds.


MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. (dir. Steve Loveridge; 2018)

Relying on a rich trove of self-shot videos, this film charts the incendiary art and politics of Maya Arulpragasam, better known as M.I.A.


National Diploma (dir. Dieudo Hamadi; 2014)

Determined Congolese students band together to pass a high-stakes graduation exam from True Vision honoree Dieudo Hamadi.


The Next Guardian (dirs. Dorottya Zurbó & Arun Bhattarai; 2017)

In a remote Bhutanese village, teenage siblings Gyembo and Tashi crave freedom and adventure.


Of Fathers and Sons (dir. Talal Derki; 2017)

A seasoned Al Qaeda sniper in Syria readies his 12-year-old to follow his footsteps in this never-before-seen immersion into the world of radical jihadis.


Our New President (dir. Maxim Pozdorovkin; 2018)

By turns hilarious, exhilarating, and terrifying, this deep dive into the world of Russian (fake) news offers critical lessons about 21st century propaganda.


Playing Men (dir. Matjaž Ivanišin; 2017)

A sometimes winking, sometimes eye-opening, cabinet of curiosities of peculiar games and sports, gorgeously shot all over the Mediterranean.


The Price of Everything (dir. Nathaniel Kahn; 2018)

Modern art is now a bankable commodity where art-stars like Jeff Koons and investors succeed wildly, leaving others in the dust.


Primas (dir. Laura Bari; 2017)

Two cousins Rocio and Aldana courageously transcend trauma through creative therapy in this True Life Fund selection. (Presented by The Crossing)


The Rider (dir. Chloé Zhao; 2017)

A young rodeo cowboy navigates health and family after a potentially career-ending injury, in this lush mashup of doc and fiction.


Secret Screening Gale

Fighting from within a Kafkaesque bureaucracy, a small group of committed crusaders make a stand.


Secret Screening Mistral

An impressionistic portrait of an individual who reaches for glory, falls short, and tries again.


Secret Screening Zephyr

This convincing environmental rallying cry offers a trip to the center of the world’s mysteries.


Self-Portrait: Birth in 47KM (dir. Mengqi Zhang; 2016)

Delicate scenes of village life anchor moving interviews with a survivor of the Great Famine, a subject still taboo in China.


Shakedown (dir. Leilah Weinraub; 2018)

A raucous, joyous celebration of an underground black lesbian strip club in early 2000’s Los Angeles.


Shirkers (dir. Sandi Tan; 2018)

A misfit band of young women shoot Singapore’s first independent movie with the help of a shadowy mentor, then the film mysteriously vanishes.


Taming the Horse (dir. Tao Gu; 2017)

In the dog-eat-dog world of modern China, Dong wanders aimlessly, looking for romance – and the meaning of life.


The Task (dir. Leigh Ledare; 2017)

A group of strangers cross-examine their tangled group dynamics, until the director must intervene.


Three Identical Strangers (dir. Tim Wardle; 2018)

Separated at birth, Robert, Edward and David become pop culture icons in the ‘80s after discovering they are identical triplets, then things get weird.


Voices of the Sea (dir. Kim Hopkins; 2018)

In a small seaside town in Cuba, Mariela longs for the elusive American Dream, while her fisherman husband Pita tamps down her wanderlust.


Westwood (dir. Lorna Tucker; 2018)

Fashionista Vivienne Westwood, who invented the look of British punk in the ‘70s, now owns a sprawling empire, but remains a singular iconoclast.


Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (dir. Morgan Neville; 2018)

A behind-the-scenes, radical history of Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood, directed by T/F favorite Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom). (Presented by Veterans United)