Tuesday, March 6, 2007

True/False 2007 in repose

(Photo by Parker Michels-Boyce)
True/False Film Festival 2007 (or should that be T/F Zoso?) was an absolute blast. I thought it was going to be hard to top the 2006 festival, but this year more than exceeded my expectations. Time literally flew by; and that's a very good thing, seeing as I got hardly any sleep during the festival... which I made up for today with a 3 hour "I'm completely indistinguishable from coma patients" nap. Ahh... those are the best kinds of naps. I hope that you all enjoyed your weekend as much as I did, and hopefully you can take solace in the fact that T/F is not like the Olympics: the next one is only 365 days away.

On to the recap-

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Filmmaker Fete - In a sea of madness and film flinging chaos, the fete was a welcome respite. The food and drinks at Sycamore were absolutely exquisite. I really have to thank the bartenders for mixing some incredibly good drinks (and pull a David/Paul and thank Belvedere Vodka). I'd never had Belvedere before, and this may seem like a shameful plug, but it was pretty good. And the red wine fit in very nicely with the finger-food appetizers. They had great grilled chicken strips on skewers with a tangy, spicy sauce. My mind is drawing a blank as to the name of the sauce, but my stomach knows it was keen. I had a wonderful time talking with directors and festival goers alike. I saw many more recognizable faces than I expected (not to mention the directors that were on stage), and everyone seemed in the mood for good conversation. The director of Banished, Marco Williams, is an extremely nice guy and very easy to talk to. Dinner was especially nice, as I spent the first half talking with long-time T/F fans (the Munstoes), just chatting about life in general. Some of our conversation centered on the festival, but we also trailed off on life's little intricacies. Dinner really got swinging when the Munstoes and I got to talk to our table partners about their film "Buddha's Lost Children". I unfortunately was not going to see the movie, but Mark Verkerk and Ton Okkerse were more than happy to talk about their film. I don't know if it was explained in the film, but the kick-boxer received most of his tattoos after he became a monk. They also said that several other monks had tried to do what the "Tiger Monk" accomplished, but failed. The "Tiger Monk" was well received by the people because of his interesting background and non-traditional style.

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Gimme Truth - Ok, so Jeremy and I didn't win. I'm not the least bit depressed though, because the show was AMAZING. John Gotsick aka "Johnny St. John" aka "John Sawyer" (American Shopper) did a supreme job hosting, but the contestants really stole the show. Marco Williams (Banished), Annie Sundberg (The Devil Came on Horseback) and Gary Burns (Radiant City) all came straight from the open bar from the Fete, and spirits were high. The event showed us supposed vegetarian dogs, a quarter scandal, the artfully composed film "lights", submarine-phobia, and others, all interspersed with reactions to Gary's off-the-wall question "what color was the dog's stool?" in response to the vegetarian dog short. When you see it in writing, it might seem more toilet humor than comic genius, but it played throughout the show to a crowd of laughs. I think it was Gary's genuine thought that he could trick the filmmaker with the question that gave it charm. I missed the Trebek intro from the inaugural year, and was initially confused by the printed brochure that announced Doppler Dave would be hosting part of the show, but all it all it was a warm-hearted, comedic, and memorable event.

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Manda Bala - I'll be the first to say that I was disappointed in this film. I have to clarify that I had to leave the film about 20 minutes early, so my judgment is not based on the whole. I highly enjoyed the non-linear storytelling element that Jason Kohn used in his storytelling, but that enjoyment was short-lived. I felt that the film made light of kidnap victims, and some of the images shown were unnecessarily grotesque. If Kohn was attempting to capture the chaos and juxtaposition that is Sao Paulo, he did an excellent job. But it was clear that this chaotic storytelling confused the audience, as I would occasionally hear audience members laughing and then stifling their laughter. I'll admit that the interview with the bulletproof car owner had its comical moments, but you'd quickly see video of yet another kidnapping. Crane shots and Hollywood style character intros were interspersed with less than dramatic interviews, followed up by archival video that would never in ten thousand years be shown on broadcast television. Maybe I need to give the film another look, but I left trying to focus more on the interesting storytelling style (like Mulholland Drive or Memento) than the film's content.

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The King of Kong - Wow. Just WOW. This movie deserved the standing ovation it received. If the crowd is any judge of the public's taste in movies, this is sure to be the next underground hit documentary. It takes a relatively simple story of the World Donkey Kong Champions, delights you with characters that truly are stranger than fiction, quotes much, much funnier than any "Napoleon Dynamite", and leaves you wanting more. It was a real treat to have Steve Wiebe and Steve Saunders in the house to answer questions. I really want to find out if Steve made it to Gunther's games for a game or two... so I might have to make some calls. If this movie comes back to RagTag, you need to see it. And if it doesn't, at least it'll be remade into a movie and have a major theatrical release. I'll be seeing the theatrical version, that's for sure, but I'm buying Seth Gordon's documentary. This is one of those films that you could watch at any time and just smile the entire time. And aside from a small section with "Mr. Awesome" the film should be fairly appropriate for just about any audience. Human triumph, tragedy, small children, and video games. What more could you ask for?

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Secret Screening Green - I think I'm under oath not to talk about this film. I will say that the soundtrack was sold out very early after the showing, we had a wonderful show after the film, and the film's principal subjects were very humble and interesting. Check out the message board for more interest on the soundtrack. The message board thread about the soundtrack

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The Devil Came on Horseback - I have to take a slightly different stance on this movie than Jeremy does. While I agree with him that the title itself (symbolizing the definition of the Janjaweed) gives you the idea that the film is more of a generalized story, I think it's an acceptable indulgence. The title really did cause me to be instantly interested in the film, more so than a title such as "Darfur: The Brian Steidle Story" would have. (That's a horrible example of an alternative title though). Aside from that slight bit of misrepresentation, I have to applaud what Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg did with this film. I had the fortune of taking a class on the history of modern Africa that was taught by a professor from Sudan. As such, I came into the movie having a good amount of prior knowledge about the horrors of Darfur and war in Africa. What Stern and Sundberg did for this film was tell the American version of a genocide that is affecting the world RIGHT NOW. This isn't a film like "The Invisible Children" or even the big-budget "Hotel Rwanda". Focusing on the life of Steidle and his efforts to educate America about the horrors, the film did more than show that there is genocide; it showed that people in America have only been marginally stepping up to combat it. It's my own belief that when a film is incredibly graphic, people can be very affected and moved by it, but take comfort in the assumption that people in power were also as moved and disturbed, and that it's only a matter of time before the situation is righted. Steidle himself held this belief, thinking that it would only be a few weeks before hundreds of American troops were in the region to play the hero’s role that the people of Darfur need so desperately. By focusing on what has happened since the initial declaration by Colin Powell that Darfur was indeed genocide and noting the failure to provide assistance, I think many more people will be moved to write their senators and act, (that's the belief anyway).

I'd also like to say that Jeremy forgot to mention that the grotesque images were limited almost entirely to still photos. The video could easily have shown much more gruesome video (like Manda Bala) but instead focused on much more emotional interviews with refugees and survivors. Coming out of Manda Bala, using still photos rather than video to show genocide seemed like a conscious thought on the directors' part to highlight genocide in a view much more palatable to viewers, (while still not making light of the situation).

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Raiders: The Adaptation - “They did it.” This film recaptured my childhood the way that memories and time never could. Forget the fact that I wasn’t born when Eric and Chris started filming. Forget the fact that I wasn’t in Mississippi. Forget the fact that I never tried to remake Indiana Jones. In another life and another dimension, I was in this film.

Seeing the film after interviewing both Chris and Eric was a treat. They really did an amazing job with the film; I can see why Spielberg was flattered. True performers and genuine good-guys, the Q&A afterwards was one of the most memorable and lighthearted experiences in my life. It’s not often that you get to talk to fully-grown men about how they remade Indiana Jones as kids right after you watched their version in full BetaMax glory. I really do think that Chris and Eric are some of the most humble, dedicated, and interesting people I’ve ever met (you’d have to be touring around showing a film you made as kids, living the cult hero life). If you get a chance to see this film and talk to Eric and Chris, take the opportunity. You’ll be glad you did.

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American Shopper - “Holy cow, I SHOP there!” Interestingly enough, I was standing in line chatting with the Schnucks’ Manager before the film, blissfully unaware of his role in the film. I have to say that this might be my favorite film of the festival, but it gets major bonus points for being based in Columbia and featuring people and places I’ve met and frequented (met the people, frequented the places, just to keep things straight). Like David and Paul said, it would have been very hard to reject this film, but I don’t think the directors gave the pair much to reject. A perfect blend of fact and fiction in a reality show-meets-“Supermarket Sweep”, the film showed off the best of Columbia. It could have easily made light of the quirky characters and taken advantage of what was on the surface a comical ideal, but masterfully gave the piece deeper meaning by allowing the characters to tell their own stories. Mike, Grace, Wes, the winning couple… everyone in the film had humorous moments but instead of being stereotypical characters (the artsy one, the actor, the cowboy, the Trekkie, the redneck, the drama queen, etc.), we were introduced to the beautiful tapestry of individual lives and the charm of small-town meets big-city Columbia culture. The one question I’ve been asked about this film almost incessantly is “Can it work as a film outside of Columbia?”. This is a hard one to answer, but I think that the directors, producers, and characters in the film really do have a winner here. I don’t think that this will see the success of a “Bowling for Columbine”, “Fast Food Nation” or “An Inconvenient Truth”, but it will grow wings and fly on its right. What is sure to become a cult classic and at least a must-have for all Columbians, this film brought T/F 2007 to close as no other film could have. Everyone keeps talking about how T/F is such a great festival because of the town and the people, and this film captures that belief for all to see on the big-screen of the Missouri Theatre.

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It has been a joy working with True/False this year. Everything happened and ended so quickly, but the memories will be with me for years to come. I’ll be back next year, that’s for sure. And thank you Columbia, for capturing my heart and giving me some of the best experiences of my life.

-Mark

Sunday, March 4, 2007

The Eleventh Hour

As I head into my 7th 20-22 hour day, I'm in dire need of a break. So... tomorrow I'll be posting the recap of my T/F events, thoughts, and reflections, much as Jeremy did.

Be on the lookout for: The Filmmaker Fete, Gimme Truth, Manda Bala, The King of Kong (sweet baby jesus it was amazing!), my very vague and possibly unpublishable thoughts on secret screening green, Devil Came on Horseback, Raiders: The Adaptation (the full film followup!), and the film that took Columbia by storm: American Shopper.

I'll be back soon dear reader... I just need a lot of water and a good amount of sleep to get my thoughts in order.

The Final Recap (*Sniff*)

What? Already? Well... I suppose I'm in denial about my festival experience being over (though there are still films ongoing, and the Buskers will make their valiant last stand at the Missouri Theater later tonight). So before I get into any "best-of" list-making, let me just run down each of the events that I've attended since my last post.

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The Show (Saturday night concert @ the Blue Note).

This concert proved something about each of the night's performers:

- Even Casper & the Cookies acknowledge that their name is stupid. But that won't stop them from rolling out their winsome pop stylings.
- Scream Club know how to work a crowd. They had the whole Blue Note posse locked in with waving arms and exuberant chants throughout their blazin', Peaches-inspired hip-hop set.
- The Apples In Stereo's Robert Schneider is the fuzzy-faced patron saint of friendliness. The guy was giving out handshakes, hugs and grins to fans the whole night, thanking them between every song, and just generally being impossibly warm and goofy. He didn't miss a beat when fans started taking the stage for his band's last number, even allowing a rowdy pair to take the mic for the final coda.
- As a band, you do not under any circumstances follow up Mucca Pazza. There are like 30 of those people. And not just that - they are good 'n' crazy. They could take out similar high-population groups like the Polyphonic Spree with a single blast from their Jericho-crushing horn section. MP absolutely owned the joint lock 'n' key throughout their set. The 'fourth wall' between them and the audience was nonexistent, as they paraded out on to the Blue Note Floor, up to the balcony, and everywhere in between - all without collision incidents. Amazing.

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"King Corn" @ The Bull Pen on Business Loop 70.

What an odd spot for a documentary - a little bullring in the center of the floor, with stadium seating hemming it in from all sides. The room's heaters went on and off sporadically, creating an unstable room temperature. A vertical support beam blocked the center of the projector screen from my vantage point. But hey - the food was free and the film was sharp, so no complaints here. Director Aaron Wolff and stars Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney give us a pointed and at times poignant look at the way the country's shift toward the overproduction of corn has affected our diets, the lives of farmers, and even the stomachs of livestock. Clearly one of the better festival entries that I saw, I anticipate a big campaign for this feature to be in the offing, especially with Congress debating a new farm bill this year.

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"The Devil Came on Horseback" @ The Missouri Theatre.

This was the only flick that Mark and I both caught together. Maybe he can weigh in on this feature, too. Really, the horrors of Darfur have reached a boiling point where our nation vitally need documentaries on this conflict to get the information out there to the American public. The title of this particular doc is a bit misleading, in that it promises a more generalized examination of the Arab Janjaweed militias and their barbaric tactics in murdering and displacing hundreds of thousands of black Sudanese.

But really, this is the story of Brian Steidle, an ex-Marine who was sent to Sudan a few years ago to "monitor" the ceasefire between rebel and government forces. This approach has its strengths and weaknesses - undoubtedly this is a powerful film that will galvanize people to action. But much of it really is Steidle just talking to us, so that it takes on more the feel of a polemic than a panoramic view of the origins of what's going on in the region. For example, the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice for Equality Movement (JEM) are barely touched on, and when they are, they are only portrayed through Steidle's lens as selfless freedom fighters. Is this really the case? I left wanting to know more - and that's definitely the mark of a good film. In the end, though, I left feeling like this particular feature missed out on an opportunity to educate the public more fully, and instead leaned heavily on the knee-jerk factor of repeated shots of gruesomely mutilated bodies.

All the same, it has inspired to pen some letters to my representatives on the Darfur matter - an act of political participation that I've never undertaken. I'd say, on the whole, it was a worthwhile view.

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"Buddha's Lost Children" @ The Missouri Theatre

This feature was for me a necessary uplift after "The Devil' and its blood-splattered desert landscapes. "Buddha's Lost Children" follows of the travels of Thai monk and ex-kickboxer Khru Bah as he and his novice disciples (a group of mostly pre-pubescent boys) travel the heavily forested regions of Thailand, looking to do good by area villagers and learn basic life lessons. It's an absolutely charming cast, led by the gregarious wit of Khru Bah. Watching the emotional maturation of his charges proves a real treat - we see one little fellow go from a maladroit mute to a confident, hard-working achiever. Director Mark Verkerk and his cinematographers take full advantage of the lush jungle setpieces and the rambunctious energy of the novices, tying everything together with a warm sense of humanism - a welcome breather after some of the festival's more relentlessly dreary entries.

Saturday, March 3, 2007

At The Note

Well, folks, I shook Robert Schneider's hand - twice. Essentially my festival experience goes downhill from here. I mean, sure, it's nice to see Schneider's Apples in Stereo play - not to mention Casper & the Cookies, Scream Club, and the hype bullet train that is Mucca Pazza - but nothing replaces that one-on-one connection, however brief it may be. Sure, as per always when I meet a musical idol, I tripped all over myself with "awe-shucks" and boundless praise, but to his credit Mr. Schneider took it all in stride. More of concern to him was the mysterious disappearance of his lucky red space pen - it writes UPSIDE DOWN, people - somewhere amongst his band's equipment. If you see any writing utensil matching the above description, report to the Blue Note post haste.

The show has yet to begin... Beck's "Mutations" album plays over the speakers, and people are just lounging about right now before things kick off. I certainly need these brief idle moments to collect my breath... and blog, of course. Time for two more quick movie sums?

"Super Amigos" - superheroes are real - at least in Mexican politics. Capitalizing on the popularity of Lucha Libre wrestlers, an assortment of masked do-gooders travel the political landscape of Mexico City, using their bright costumes and winning personalities to draw people to their respective causes. Director Arturo Perez Torres focuses in on five crusaders in particular, stitching their stories together with an entirely appropriate comic book motif. At times, the pace fell off a bit, but overall, it was a fascinating angle to take on the crises that affect not just Mexico, but the continent at large - homophobia, environmental crises, orphans, animal rights violations, and the gentrification of downtown communities.

"Welcome Europa" - welcome, indeed. Director Bruno Helmer's vision of Europe - as refracted through a cast of neglected but determined immigrants - is all grayscale grime, replete with male prostitution, fascist police, and the tears of all the unfortunate souls who came and failed to find the paradise they sought. The film takes of careening all over the European content - Holland, Spain, Germany - and everywhere the same spirit of hopeless struggle pervades. Certainly, not an easy film to stomach - but it's as necessary an exercise as any product at the festival. If documentaries are to be accurate reflections of reality, then idealistic fantasy must be shattered in the process.

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Casper & the Cookies have started! Off to film!

The film that I must own


Pierce City, MO... Forsyth, GA... expulsion of blacks and the theft of their land... Investigative Reporting... Archive searches... confrontational interviews... director narration... exhumed bodies... demonstrations in the '80s... compelling stories... breathtaking.

I still can't believe that "Banished" exists... that it's a film... that I had just about the same amount of info as dir. Marco Williams and never made the connections. I felt intricately linked to every minute detail in the film. For you see, just last semester I had been doing my own investigative reporting and newspaper archive searches. Seeing the same microfilms up on the big screen made me jump. "I did that! Oh my goodness, I read about the same type of events! I never knew it was such a trend." I never knew about Pierce City though; the only towns I looked at were Springfield, Moberly, and Columbia. I strongly suggest that every single person take a look at the history of his or her own communities. Maybe it's my age or my naivety that allows me to be ignorant to the fact that entire communities can have segregationist mindsets... I know that there is still racism in America, that there is hate and discrimination and inhumanity. But I always thought that we as a society had advanced beyond that. I was convinced that racism had been effectively rooted out of government, that aside from individuals and small factions of people, on a whole our community at least had some tolerance. Except for the few rogue individuals, the building blocks were in place for a colorless society. Seems I was very, very wrong.

I'll throw this link in here. Missouri Lynchings I came across it in my own research, and it does a good job of listing the lynchings that occurred in Missouri over the past hundred or so years. One in Columbia in 1923...Three in Springfield in 1906, both followed by what can only be described as extreme tension down the "white/black" border. In Springfield, a large majority of families moved out after the lynchings. I never thought about how they would be leaving their land and possessions behind. But the director, Marco Williams, was able to connect the dots and confront the issue of "what happened to the land". The story is nothing short of amazing. 7 acres worth of the Strickland homestead stolen in Forsyth... an unmarked grave and tense community of Pierce City, MO...

While I was watching the film, I couldn't help but think about the fact that all this land once belonged to the Native Americans. At some point, it was stolen, the people forced from their land, and then the law came in and made the theft legal. It happened again... but this wasn't 200 or 300 years ago. It was the 1900s... and the press covered everything. When our government dodges the prospect of reparations for slavery, a rational mind might say "Reparations on the large scale of ALL slavery need careful planning and time to implement". Ok... that argument at least says that you're willing to try. But Williams brings up a much more pertinent, easily digestible situation. 7 acres of land. One family is affected, government records show that a deed had been falsified and the land sold illegally. The man who sold the land was supposed to be the representative on a multicultural council designed to tackle the racial question. (hmm... that's interesting...) Why can't we address that which was so egregiously stolen and these obviously criminal actions? What is stopping Forsyth from mending the fences with one of its old families? Why wasn't it easier for Pierce City to exhume Cobb's body? When is our nation going to step up on a community-by-community basis and stand up for what is right? We can't all wait for the federal government to institute nation-wide changes. And really, how hard is it to take the first step? I know what my first step is: Buying this movie when it's released and showing all of my friends.

Panel-Palooza

It's Day 2 (unofficially day 4) and my count stands at 4 panels and 4 films.

Friday's panels at the Forrest Theatre were absolutely fantastic. It started off with the incredibly moving "Hot Spots" panel moderated by POY's (and Mizzou's) Rick Shaw. I don't think there was a dry eye in the entire house. And how could there be? The vast majority had never been to war-torn areas, and the images and stories behind them struck a chord in your soul. Apparently while our world was focused on Jessica Lynch's recovery, an Iraqi man in the very same ward had just lost 4 of his children... A much more moving story representative of the civilians in the war, but apparently that's not what the public should be interested in.

Unfortunately for the blog, but fortunately for the viewer, I was spending much more time taking the best video possible of Unscripted: Tales of Doc Derring-Do, Rocket Science, and Me and My Shadow. I'll be honest - I really need to watch the video again to get the full effect of their presentations. We will have that video up shortly for everyone to see. (Actually, some of it is already being played on a plasma screen down at Kevin's World, thanks to Jessica Huang... check it out. He's got pancakes even!). We had several camera angles and good audio, so hopefully our video coverage of the event will be akin to actually having been at the panel.

I'm really interested in how the other volunteers feel about T/F. Do you feel that you balance working the festival with experiencing it? Personally, I'm having a blast the entire time. Even though I didn't catch every word to the panels, I know that my video camera did... But even so, there's a small amount of a disconnect. Maybe it's just that I feel guilty that I know each of these films and panels deserve every single bit of attention I can give them, but I was unable to do this as I was frantically trying to keep optimum audio levels, the picture white balanced, focused, and *cross my fingers* artfully composed.

I'll post on here again once we have all the video available, but in the meantime you should check out Lakota Saturday and Sunday from noon-3pm and 6-9pm and check out a Canon handy cam, upload your videos and photos, and talk about your experiences. No need to worry about white balancing with these cameras though. We'll take any and all video you shoot (just don't film the actual movies). We'll give you credit for the video too. So if you just want to walk down the street with the camera, interview a director, or dance a jig and get in a T/F documentary... stop by Lakota.

In Flight

So while I'm here waiting at the Artisan for my Turkey, Apple and Brie Sandwich (yum!) let me launch a quick one-two (sandwich arrives - blogging grinds to a halt) salvo of movie recaps:

The common denominator? The hidden lives of American outcasts

"Running Stumbled" - last night's late showing made for a perfect atmosphere - here's a documentary with the disjointed, horror house feel of a fever dream. John Maringouin takes audiences to the heart of his disabled, pill-addled father's artistic madness, and in so doing drives us to the perilous question: where's sanity, where's insanity?

"Off The Grid: Life On The Mesa" - modern outlaws, middle-aged hippies, burnt out Gulf War vets all find a strange symbiosis out in the middle of New Mexico in an improvised community. Pot is the currency of choice, and guns are a necessary accessory. But don't dismiss this group - they see themselves as hot-blooded patriots who are watching over the last swatch of truly American land. Countless memorable characters emerge - but perhaps none more so than Stan, the Mesa pig farmer who helps teen runaways get back on their feet during their stay in the desert.

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That's all I can manage for now... I'm off to "Super Amigos!"

Friday, March 2, 2007

"War Dance"


We hear a lot about the power of music these days - to change governmental policies, to inspire the directionless, and to prompt the conception of little rock 'n' roll babies. But no film I've ever seen has truly nailed the sheer joy that music and dance can inject into life more than this doc I just caught over at the Tiger Hotel. "War Dance" tells the story of a primary school class in war-scarred Northern Uganda that heads south for a national dance and music competition. On one level it's your basic underdog story, but the psychological trauma that these children have all undergone (many have lost parents or other immediate family members) adds an ocean of depth that goes light years beyond most of the other films of this ilk. It travels from the depths of human suffering to the ecstasy that performance lends to the kids. The beautiful cinematography takes things to yet another level. Filmmakers Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine have a real triumph on their hands, here. If you didn't catch it at T/F, look for a more widespread release in the fall.

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Official film site

Uganda Wiki

It Just Don't Stop


Links are good... that's why I'm letting you all in on VOX Magazine's blowout coverage of the festival. They're good people there... I've worked with a few, and I can categorically state that they are all very clean individuals without malice or discontent.

And yes, I hope to incessantly link you all to the Flickr group, since we're beginning to receive our first unsollicited photo contributions, and they're looking mighty purdy. So if you've got a camera, we want you aboard. If not... well... we have a kiosk for that!

This "multimedia center" will be located at Lakota Coffee Co. (24 S. 9th Street) starting today. We have ten video recorders and a slew of still cameras that we're going to hand out to the public so they can thoroughly document their T/F Experience. From the waits in line to the freaky back alley parties to the music to the dining, we want to give Columbians an all access pass into the life and times of a nonfiction film festival.

Here are the hours on the (and this is the official title) "T/F Multimedia Kiosk:"

Friday (today): 12-3 p.m., 5-6 p.m., 9:30-10:30 p.m.
Saturday: 12-3 p.m., 6-9 p.m.
Sunday: 12-3 p.m., 6-9 p.m.

Hope to see you there. To paraphrase R.E.M.: "you're so much more attractive inside the T/F Kiosk."

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Baby Gramps Saved My Eternal Soul!


T/F '07 is happening... now! All of Columbia trembles with nervous anticipation. I got the chance to check out of two of the opening night events, and must say that if these were the appetizer... bring on the pot roast.

First up was filmmaker Peter Gerard submitting clips of his current production "Tomorrow, I'll Eat My Music" to an audience critique at Ragtag Cinemacafe. It ain't easy for an artist to put his work out there, unfinished, for the masses to tee off on, but this documentarian seemed undaunted. The film started off as a simple journal of one man's journey back to his native Ghana to record an album of authentic African material (all of the white musicians in Scotland were too stiff for his taste's).

But thing quickly careen off the tracks, and suddenly Gerard gets absorbed into the proceedings, suddenly rendered a character in his own documentary. The audience was on point with a variety of probing questions, and Gerard fielded their inquiries honestly, and not without charm. Rarely does one see collaboration such as this in the cinema today - usually it's gigantic studios telling viewers what they want to see - inevitably some combination of CGI mutants and desperately unfunny jokes by former SNL writers.

So yeah, I hope this type of creative brainstorming environment returns to future T/F festivals - as long as there are filmmakers out there brave enough to put their work under the microscope.

Oh yeah... and about this post's title...

Having been to my fair share of concerts, I know it's pretty common practice for an act to just mail in a performance and force the audience to pick up the postage. Doesn't matter the genre, the artist's age, or how well known they are. Humdrum Performance Syndrome is universal.

But damn, this Baby Gramps cat? Imagine Captain Beefheart wrung through a didgeridoo, with a thousand volts of electricity shot through him. Playing his self-identified "epileptic swamp music," Baby Gramps cut through his set with a madcap charisma that won the crowd at the Artisan over from the first note. Anyone else doing a eight to ten minute version of "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" is going to get a lethal dose of apathy from a crowd, but Gramps worked the crowd like a sly old miracle tonic salesman, getting an unprecedented response for the song's refrain.

Every song seemed to willingly veer in a thousand different detours, whether they be an unexpected guitar break, a humorous aside, or at one point, a damned impressive Bob Dylan impersonation. Gramps' rickety fingers shot up and down his vintage guitar in an impressive display of dexterity. With his creepy vocal tics, slithering guitar, and pounding boot, Gramps kept the audience rapt for the duration of his set, and even had a demanded encore, which he could sadly not deliver. Plus, he's a looker too. See above.

In short - pretty staggering stuff. I had been hotly anticipating acts like the Apples In Stereo and Mucca Pazza, but this madman came out of nowhere. Certainly bodes well for the rest of the festival! Discoveries abound when T/F is in town!

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You kinda have to be there for the impact to hit you full in the face, but check out the man's audio samples page. May I recommed "Teddy Bears' Picnic?" Goofy good stuff.

Got photos from the performance or anything else from Thursday night's weirdness? That's what Flickr is for!

Monday, February 26, 2007

An Epic Remade - Raiders: The Adaptation


**Note** Do yourself a favor and download this trailer. (Right click and "save as") courtesy of TheRaider.net

Cue Don LaFontaine:
“In 1982, Jayson Lam, Eric Zala, and Chris Strompolos began shooting a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
*Ominous music plays*
Don: “They were twelve years old.”


You might recognize Don LaFontaine from a recent Geico commercial, and you’d definitely recognize the voice on any epic movie trailer. Simply put, no other voice could be paired with the trailer for “Raiders: The Adaptation”; the film and the story of how it came to be are nothing short of epic. It took seven years, a submarine, almost burning down a house, and an army of neighborhood kids, but they did it.

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Their story begins with an endless school bus ride down by the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It was the summer of 1981; right after Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in theaters. Chris Strompolos and Eric Zala shared the same bus, and the same interest for Indiana Jones. Well, I shouldn’t say the same interest, per se; since Eric had only seen the film in theatres once, and Chris was engrossed enough to already have an Indiana Jones comic book compilation. But the friendship took root as Chris generously let Eric borrow the comic; little did Eric know that his interest in comics would lead to a seven-year ordeal.

“He had seen a film that I had done in sixth-grade, and thought mistakenly that I knew something about filmmaking. He gave me a call out of the blue, ‘Hey Eric, this is Chris, the kid from the bus who loaned you the comic book… I’m doing this shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Do you want to help?’ and I said “Yeah! Sure, sounds good”, said Zala.

Like Strompolos, Zala made his own assumptive mistakes. Zala thought the sets were built, costumes picked out, and with a cast already in place… but in truth, only two things had been completed: Chris was cast as Indiana Jones and the script had been purchased from a Waldenbooks.

“It was mainly born out of fantasy to play Indiana Jones. I wanted to create that world and live in that world myself,” said Strompolos.

The pair set to work, scoping out the basement and backyard of Zala’s mom’s house for sets and rounding up neighborhood kids to play the parts. But tackling a remake was not as easy as finding a bullwhip and an Indiana Jones hat. The first Marion moved away to Alaska, and had to be recast. The Indiana Jones costume saw several changes. Puberty took hold and dragged the boys from the higher octaves and into the deep dark world of facial hair. Holiday and birthday gifts were coordinated so the film would have the right costumes and props. The bar fight scene, combined with a desire to include real special effects and inexperience with using it safely, nearly burned down the house and burned Eric in the process.

“For whatever reason, the day that I doubled for the ratty Nepalese, we decided to use gasoline on my back (instead of Isopropyl Alcohol). We were thinking we were playing it safe, because I was wearing a fire retardant rain coat underneath, and we had not one but two garden hoses, standing-by, a couple of security blankets, and a fire extinguisher as a last resort…” said Zala. “I was lit aflame, I stood up, screamed, hit my cue, and yelled cut. We had two kids run forth with the blankets to get the flames out, but these guys hadn’t done this type of thing before… they threw the blanket on my back, almost immediately pulled it off, threw it back on, pulled it off… they were actually fanning the flames higher… we finally resorted to the fire extinguisher”

But persistence paid off. The duo, now a trio with the addition of special FX and camera prodigy Jayson Lam, managed to create an entire shot-for-shot remake of Raiders (all except for the plane scene). They spent entire summers editing at night at the local ABC station (WLOX) where Strompolos’ mom was an anchor. The film was finished, and the trio was content. The local news media had even turned them into minor celebrities over the years, but soon the film was akin to the Ark itself: lost to time. Strompolos’ wife didn’t even know about the Raiders: Adaptation movie until “Raiders: The Adaptation” exploded onto the festival scene. It wasn’t until June of 2003 that the movie was given its “World Premiere” at The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas (theraiders.net). Overnight, the trio became “The Godfathers of the fan film”.

Touring across the country, the “Raiders: The Adaptation” guys began to show off their film to throngs of fans. They did their best to skip any legal hurdles by donating all of their proceeds to local charities or organizations like Doctors Without Borders. Zala and Strompolos routinely held classes for young filmmakers, not too far removed from the True/False event “Indy-Pendent Filmmaking” that will be held at the United Methodist church on Saturday, March 3 from 11am-1:30pm. But even better than simply avoiding legal problems, the trio had a private screening for the people at Lucasfilm and received written praise from and met the ‘Berg himself. They were given a tour of the Lucasfilm archives. Zala has a picture of when the group “opened the real Ark” at the archives, but said they were forbidden from actually opening the holy prop. No one, and I mean no one, should look inside the Ark.

Basking in the glory that is the Lucasfilm archives may be well and good, but it was just one experience. And for Zala and Strompolos, at every screening they get to see more than their own show. The audience members themselves provide the pair with just as much entertainment and excitement.

“When we were in Palm Beach, Florida, we had this guy show up, and he was in his 30s, really nice guy. He was sitting right behind us and we watched the movie, and Eric and I stood up to go do the Q&A. I remember this guy putting his hand on my shoulder and kinda turning me around, just looking at me. His eyes were wide open, he had tears in his eyes, and he was crying. He said, ‘Oh my god. You did it.’ All he could say was ‘You did it. You did what we all wanted to do.’ It was a really cool feeling.”

Strompolos and Zala agree that Raiders has been more than just a movie. Its rediscovery has been a chance for them to reconnect, to relive their past, and share the delight and wonder of childhood with entire generations of fans. And watching the movie again and again helps the Zala and Strompolos realize just how lucky they were to have had an Indiana Jones-adapted childhood.

“In college, I probably would have dismissed the idea as being too much of a kid thing. I would have wanted to do more original work. It was a bit of serendipity that we had this little seven-year window from 12-19, being able to finish the movie just as we become young adults with different tastes,” said Zala.

“It was lightning in a bottle… the thing for us was that we didn’t plan on anyone else seeing it. We did it for ourselves… we thought, ‘why would anyone want to see this?’ Our egos would probably be more involved. It wouldn’t have that raw childhood magic,” said Strompolos.

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Check out “Raiders: The Adaptation” on Sunday, March 4 at 3:30 pm at the Blue Note. It might not be your regular True/False documentary, but there’s a reason it’s listed as a “Special Presentation”. Come relive Zala and Strompolos’ childhood, and bask in the story that has already spawned at least one documentary called "When We Were Kids" (release date TBD).

Be sure to check out more Raiders info at:
The Raider Fan Page
and
The Indy Experience

Video coverage of the Raiders Guys
Videos

Sunday, February 25, 2007

T/F Local Coverage Round-Up!

The press evidently loves a good old-fashioned nonfiction film festival. Here are some of the articles that have appeared in local outlets about T/F:

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KRCG-TV 13 talks with festival organizers David Wilson and Paul Sturtz. A quick interview that covers the festival's basics. Best quote:

"...if you are putting on a festival, then you want to believe that films can change people’s lives. Most of the time, they don’t. Most of the time, people watch a film and maybe they learn something or experience a subtle change in their lives. To have that direct a moment where someone watches something, then walks out and commits to doing something for other people, that is really incredible. That’s what our True/False Film Festival is all about." - David Wilson

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The Columbia Missourian previews a selection of the festival's films. Includes links to some of the official film sites, with trailers as well. A nice pocket companion.

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He linked to us, so let's return the favor: Pete Bland of the Columbia Daily Tribune blogs about the festival. It's called "Inside the Slash." Hardly bland, I'd say!

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The Trib also ran a delightful feature on the volunteers whose steel-eyed determination and boundless enthusiasm keep T/F running. Lovely portraits of some of the prominent volunteering faces - such as this blog's own Paula Elias - are included. Here's to doing what you love.

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch film critic Joe Williams is also down with the T/F, featuring it alongside the Big Muddy Film Festival in a recent column. Included are his recommended films at True/False.

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If you're near the Mizzou campus, be sure to pick up a copy of the new issue of the Maneater's MOVE Magazine, which has T/F featured on its cover. They don't have an online edition, but hey, there's nothing wrong with the smooth sensation of paper running through one's fingers, or the gentle rustle of the pages as they flap together. Mmm... I'm getting wistful just writing about it.

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And check out our partners in blogging crime over at True Slash False. They are both official and unauthorized - and, you know, funny.

That's all for now. I'll keep an eye out for other media coverage!

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Mucca Pazza - The Bovine Frenzy


The high school marching band can crush a teenager's spirit if he's not careful. It's the closest thing that a kid can find to military experience without combat fatigues or flak jackets. From their bawdy pulpits, high school music directors the nation over drill their uniformed legions in the summer heat, trying to mold a disparate collection of impressionable youths into a musical killing machine. Each minute movement and every note played must mesh with immaculate precision. Otherwise, well, it's not music, is it?

Mucca Pazza, a free-form implosion of sound effectively disguised as a thirty-something-piece marching band, seems hell-bent on counteracting the corrupting effect that such militaristic order can cause in music. Their uniforms don't match. Their stage formations barely hold together, crumbling at a drumbeat into a crush of bodies that resembles a rugby scrum with brass instruments thrown in. Trombonist and original member Elanor Leskiw calls the group a "democracy," but judging from its stage act alone, Mucca Pazza ("crazy cow" in Italian) operates only a few steps removed from total anarchy.

That theatrical chaos, of course, belies the intense planning and commitment that goes into keeping this collective running. Leskiw refers to herself as the "band mom," a position which requires her to help coordinate the sundry schedules of over two dozen musicians, publicity, getting the group booked for gigs, and all of the little details that keep this ramshackle tower of sound from collapsing. Assisting her in "herding the herd" is musical director Mark Messing and a newly hired tour manager.

Leskiw could certainly use a bit of help - not only is she trying to pay her bills with work as a waitress and freelance trombone playing, but now the "little marching band" she helped to establish a few years back has exploded within the Chicago music scene. Recent conquests include a slot at Lollapalooza, a show-smashing appearance on Conan O'Brien, and an improbable performance in canoes, as part of a Friends of the Chicago River benefit.

Leskiw says that the group owes much of its ascendance to the communal spirit in the Windy City's arts world.

"We formed around fun and beauty of making music. Everything we're doing now is merely a result of what we would be doing anyway."

That collaborative spirit helped to quadruple the group's membership - it started as a relatively puny seven-piece in the summer of 2004. The original members practiced in an industrial parking lot, and occasionally landed gigs at Chicago club The Hideout - on nights when it was closed, unfortunately. But eventually they found audiences, and in taking crowd participation to a new level, began to recruit friends and admirers to swell their ranks. By the time membership hit the mid-20s, it seemed like a good time to slow down with recruiting. By then, the band had its own cadre of cheerleaders, now a staple of its raucous live act.

"We love the crazy notion that a marching band should have its own cheerleaders," says Leskiw. "It's from the idea of the music nerds versus the football team. So we thought we'd have our own nerdy cheerleaders."

With Chicago well-trampled beneath their hooves, the crazy cows are now beginning to scrape enough dough together to make brief jaunts outside of their home base - to Minneapolis, Madison, and now Columbia for the True/False Film Festival. The group has hatched designs for a full-length album (for now, there's only a self-released EP), as well as an even more audacious performance stunt: performing on bicycles during Chicago's Critical Mass, a monthly event that promotes alternative (non-car) transportation in the city.

Until then, Columbia ought to brace itself for the Mucca Pazza stampede. Be warned, folks: it ain't choreographed.

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Mucca Pazza takes the Blue Note stage on Saturday, March 3 at 9:30. Also on the bill are the Apples in Stereo, Scream Club, and Casper & The Cookies. For ticket information, visit the venue's website.

To learn more about Mucca Pazza, the "astounding circus punk marching band," visit the group's website.

Check out clips of the group on YouTube!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

AIR GUITAR NATION


We've all done it. At least once. You're listening to a particularly rockin' song. Probably AC/DC or Led Zeppelin when suddenly, without even meaning to, your inner Rock God is resurrected from wherever such gods go to hide and you're suddenly rockin' out on air guitar. Though, to be clear this usually happens when you're alone in your car or in front of the bathroom mirror alone. The operative word there being alone.

But director Alexandra Lipsitz has uncovered an entire movement of people who refuse to hide their passion for Rock. People so proud of their ability that they travel thousands of miles to compete for the title of the greatest air guitarist in the world at the World Air Guitar Championships in Finland.

Alexandra Lipsitz, director of Air Guitar Nation says that the Finns believe that practicing air guitar is really all about world peace. “One cannot hold a gun and play air guitar at the same time.”

Lipsitz film tells the story of the beginning of the US Air Guitar Championships. Of how Kristin Rucker and Sedrick Devitt happened upon a story about the World Championships in Finland (in that pantheon of hip underground info, The Wall Street Journal), went to see it for themselves and came back to the United States and tried to pitch the idea as a reality show to Magical Elves, a production company known for work on reality shows such as Project Runway and Top Chef.

“It’s like a rock show and a sporting event combined and once you try it yourself it’s liberating. During the World Championship Sedrick whose stage name is Air Lingus kept yelling at me to release my inner air guitar,” says Lipsitz.

What about the licensing fees? All this music is heavily copyrighted.

Lipsitz agreed. “Nobody could wrap their mind around how you could cut it without breaking the bank with licensing fees. Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith. How could you make this without spending too much?”

“But you can’t make a movie about the love of rock without the rock. The soundtrack in this thing is amazing. We were just going for these songs and we locked it in. Magical Elves believed in it enough and they made it happen. It’s a big risk but we believe it’s that f**king good. Everybody believes in it.”

Judged on stage charisma, technique, artistic impression and something called “airness”, an air guitarist is judged on a scale of 4.0 to 6.0 like figure skating.

I asked Alex to explain the concept of airness. She was searching for words while frantically googling the word. “Well it’s not about footwear, I just wikipediad it. Airness is what makes a person a good guitarist. It transcends what they are doing and it bccomes something completely different. It’s like you are no longer watching air guitar you are watching a rock god rock out.”

Still having some difficulty understanding the concept Alex finally reassures me that it’s a concept you have to experience to understand. “You will know when you have seen it. You must come up to me and tell me at what stage you got “airness”.

We will all get that chance on Friday night of the True False Film Festival at 10 p.m. when Air Guitar Nation shows at the Forrest Theatre in the Tiger Hotel.

As they say on the movie poster, “to err is human, to air guitar divine.”

US Air Guitar
World Air Guitar

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Filmmaker Spotlight - Luke Wolbach, dir. "Row Hard No Excuses"


One might call "Row Hard No Excuses" Luke Wolbach’s third child. The production, which began in earnest back in the summer of 2000, has so thoroughly overlapped with the timeline of Wolbach’s young family that the two have become almost inextricably linked.

“I was married toward the end of 2003, the year we were fundraising,” says Wolbach as he delineates his family history. “Then there was the editing after my son was born in 2004. My daughter was born last March. We thought we’d be done [with the film] by then, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.”

Many a night, Wolbach would put his kids to bed and then immediately head up to the attic of his San Francisco home for hours of solitary editing on the film, trying to compress 250 hours of raw footage into a concise package. It was his first feature-length project after years of documentary shorts and freelance editing work. Admittedly, Wolbach had gotten “really ambitious” and perhaps in over his head in attempting to complete the documentary. But with each misstep, he refined his methods.

“The past several years have been my film school experience,” says Wolbach, poking fun at his relative lack of formal training.

Throughout 2001, Wolbach worked in concert with his father and brother to document the journey of two middle-aged rowers as they attempted to traverse 3,000 miles of unforgiving ocean from the Canary Islands to Barbados as part of the Atlantic Rowing Challenge. Unable to find sponsorship for their endeavor, the pair – Tom Mailhot and John Zeigler – constructed their own boat. They dug deep into their personal savings to finance their entry into the competition – despite the fact that no prize money lay waiting on the other end of the Atlantic.

“There’s a heroic element to it,” says Wolbach of the sport, “the idea that it will make you special. They want to do it first, do it fastest. They get it in their blood. Society at large doesn’t necessarily feel like – unless it’s for charity, it’s a very individualistic pursuit. Some call it selfish.”

For their single-minded devotion to the competition, both rowers’ personal lives suffered greatly. Mailhot lost his job as a construction supervisor and Zeigler’s marriage collapsed as a result of the demands that the race placed on them. As Wolbach found himself drawn deeper into the heart of this project – the months of scrounging up funds, the marathon editing sessions, the debates on how to best tell the rowers’ story – he began to empathize all the more with the plight of his subjects.

“‘Obsession’ is close,” he says. “There are a lot of similarities and parallel experiences between making a film and rowing across an ocean. I definitely felt obsessed. But it was a worthwhile endeavor.”

Worthwhile, because not only did Wolbach complete his first filmmaking odyssey, but he also emerged from the experience with a new perspective on his father and co-producer, Bill. The whole project actually stemmed from Bill’s experience as a rower. He had met Tom Mailhot through their shared interest in canoe racing. When he heard that his old acquaintance was preparing to tackle the grueling Atlantic Challenge, he brought his filmmaking son aboard, hoping to put together a short promotional video to help Mailhot and Zeigler find a sponsor. From those small and simple beginnings, Bill’s passion helped to fuel the project as it expanded into a full-length beast.

“I learned a lot about my father, especially,” Luke says. “He feels what these guys feel. They had strained relationships with their fathers, and I think he had a strained relationship with his own father. And then there’s the whole aspect of being middle-aged and having feelings of regret. It was an eye-opener, to hear him talk about these things himself.”

The completed film also helped to salve the relationship of its two stars. After those months trapped together in the cramped confines of their boat, enduring extreme mental and physical fatigue, Mailhot and Zeigler did not speak to each other for a good two years after the race. But both attended the film’s world premier at last month’s Slamdance Film Festival, and fielded audience questions afterward.

“It felt like a closure event of sorts,” says Wolbach, part of the rowers’ “reconciliation process.”

Wolbach, however, isn’t quite ready to put the experience behind him. He’s still promoting Row Hard, hoping to get a one-hour version broadcast on television and release a DVD. Any talk of future projects might be a bit premature, but Wolbach would prefer to do something centered in San Francisco, so that his next film won’t distract him too much from raising his family. For Luke Wolbach, three children are enough for now.

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For more stills from "Row Hard No Excuses" and additional visual goodies, visit the T/F Flickr Group at:

The T/F Flickr Group

To learn more about "Row Hard No Excuses," visit:

Lantern Films Web Site

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

True False Live Music...

Rock and/or Roll!

There are those who call me... Jeremy Goldmeier. Up until this semester at the University of Missouri-Columbia, I lived a fairly complete life, with the usual collegiate pursuits and interests. I remained pretty convinced that I was getting by all right. However, over the past month or so I've come to realize that there was a massive, festering hole in my life experience - I had never attended a True/False Film Festival.

Mark (as you can read below) had already been collaborating with the True/False people for awhile before I entered the picture. But now, I'm sort of riding this wave of group enthusiasm as we near that blessed date when True/False begins (March 1, for those of you still unawares). I'm especially excited to be talking to some of the filmmakers... I'll be interviewing Luke Wolbach, director of "Row Hard No Excuses" tonight, and should have a little feature on that project up for you readers by the end of the week.

Clearly, I'm really eager to check out all of the cinematic happenings, but music buff that I am, I'm barely containing myself at the prospect of seeing a legendary group like the Apples in Stereo live. For those of you who aren't really familiar with the backstory, let me relate it in brief: Apples guru Robert Schneider was one of the principal founders of the Elephant 6 Label, a recording collective in Athens, GA that specialized in psychedelic-leaning pop music. The Apples went on to be one of the leading lights of a genre that critics eventually tagged "indie pop." Some folks out there might have recently seen Schneider on the Colbert Report, supporting Mr. Colbert in his efforts to defeat the Decemberists in a guitar solo contest. In short - the band embodies awesomeness. Also worth noting is this group Mucca Pazza - a thirty piece "punk marching band." Their name means "crazy cow" in Italian, so I'd expect nothing less than insane bovine action once they hit the streets of CoMo.

I don't even smoke, but I do plan to bring a lighter.

More to come...

Allow myself to introduce... myself

A few months ago I approached Paul with one goal: work on the True/False Film Festival in 2007. Several meetings, phone calls, and brainstorming sessions later, here I am. Now, to you, dear reader, I may be nothing more than a faceless author on a blog that will hopefully entertain and amuse you, but let me tell you that I am far from ordinary.

I'm a 6'2'', 200 lbs white college male that goes by the name Mark Johnson.

I am so unique that in my hometown, there were only 17 other Mark Johnsons at our bank branch. Yep. It's a pretty exclusive club. Enough about me though, let's talk about T/F.

There are just about 2 weeks left until the True/False Film Festival, and I'm stoked. I reserved all my passes online after printing out the entire schedule in black and white and neurotically taking hi-lighters to the page in an effort to maximize my weekend. Green marker for films, blue for events, stars for workshops, and then circles for the must-sees. There were a LOT of circles, let me tell you. And the Secret Screenings? Oh T/F, how did you know that I can't turn down a surprise? I'm sure you won't disappoint.

Hopefully you, dear reader, have found as much excitement from the schedule as I have. Because it only gets better from here. Director and band interviews, YouTube videos, discussion boards; it's the whole "T/F Experience"!

2 weeks. I'm counting.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

It's almost like Christmas...

Except it happens in February and the only sign of Christmas are the credit card bills and the 3 inches of hardened, dirty ice on the deck that I've pretty much given up on ever getting rid of. But right here, in this moment, I am happy because I just finished pouring over the schedule for True/False 2007, reserving my tickets and clicking on submit. A happy little screen with the word "Thanks" came up with a list of all the films I plan on seeing over four raucous fun filled movie cramming days beginning March 1st.
Over the weeks to come I and my fellow authors will be sharing some conversations we have been having with some of the directors and musicians who will be gracing our humble burg.
Talk to you soon.