THE TRUE/FALSE FILM FESTIVAL 2011

There’s nothing like a parade to celebrate community spirit. When I arrived in Columbia, Missouri (aka CoMo) throngs of revelers in homemade costumes were marching down the main boulevard to kick off the 8th edition of the True/False Film Fest. The aptly named documentary festival ran from March 3-6, and community spirit was evident in the grassroots event dedicated to the audience experience.

Columbia, a small city just north of the Ozarks, counts more than one quarter of its 108,000 residents as advanced degree holders. The University of Missouri (aka Mizzou) is the largest among several schools, and its prominent sports teams command the attention of the locals. True/False founders and so-called “co-conspirators” David Wilson and Paul Sturtz created the festival to add an arts event to the mix, and to honor the region’s renowned journalism institutes with a program of nonfiction film.

Work is culled from festivals around the globe and quality is the only priority. There is no interest in premieres or competition. Local films are not given special preference as they are in many regional festivals. Among the offerings presented over the years, are hybrid works that use reality television setups, fabrications, hoaxes, and other techniques to break barriers between nonfiction and fiction film. Said Wilson, “The name ‘True/False’ is foregrounding and dismissing the idea of the binary —our festival exists in the slash. The films are on the documentary continuum, from observational to staged, with instigation between the two.”

The examination of this hot topic continued throughout the festival. At a panel of critics, Robert Koehler said, “In-between categories are where the most fecund ideas are—between transitions and eras. There are now endless permutations because the old forms are exhausted.” Eric Hynes moderated the discussion called, “It’s Not about the Realness,” that included Dennis Lim, Mark Reardon, and Vadim Rizov. Attendees for this event were few, but they were asked an impressive array of sophisticated questions.

Nontraditional films in this year’s lineup included The Arbor by Clio Barnard, which tells the story of playwright Andrea Dunbar with actors lip-synching to recorded monotone narration, created by actual … Read the rest

25 NEW FACES – PART 3

By Filmmaker Staff

Zac Stuart-Pontier

If you go to the website of Zac Stuart-Pontier (zac-edits.com), your browser heading will display the following: “Zac edits really, really, really well.” This cheeky claim was earned in early 2010 when the three feature documentaries that Zac had been working on since he graduated NYU in 2006 premiered within a month of each other: Jody Lee Lipes and Henry Joost’s NY Export: Opus Jazz, which premiered on PBS and took to the festival circuit with gusto in March, via SXSW; James Rasin’s biographical doc Beautiful Darling,about the Warhol superstar Candy Darling and the loves she left behind, which premiered at Berlin and ND/NF; and the Sundance sensation Catfish, which chronicles the twists and turns of a Facebook romance.

“The reception of Catfish was a trip,” says Stuart-Pontier. “Working on it for years, you become desensitized to the story, so when people have a reaction like that, it’s just amazing.” As his edits have progressed, Stuart-Pontier has consistently taken on a bigger role in his productions, earning himself co-producer credits on both Catfish and Beautiful Darling. He has also been an assistant director, chiefly on Cannes selections Afterschool (directed by Antonio Campos) and Two Gates of Sleep (directed by Alistair Banks Griffin), but also on some of the same commercials and music videos that he edits. “That’s perfect, because I can be on set and say, ‘Guys, I’m never gonna use this shot. Let’s cut it.’” Stuart-Pontier says he has a difficult time sitting back when there’s work to be done. “It’s hard for me to stop working on something; it feels like admitting defeat. It feels like, ‘I wasn’t able to solve this problem.’”

Growing up in Narrowsburg, N.Y., his parents ran the local newspaper together, which is where he was first bit with the story bug “learning to write news, what information you give first, how you introduce the characters.” He writes a weekly column for the River Reporter about his life, begun during college at the behest of his mother, and credits it with keeping … Read the rest

25 NEW FACES

By Filmmaker Staff

The 25 new faces of independent film.