Diversity flourishes at True/False
This year's festival promises to highlight a wide range of issues and cultures. There's even a film about "Borat." Very good, yes?
Published Feb. 10, 2009
The green screen
From saving the planet to saving the whales, True/False has plenty to offer the earth-friendly, beginning with the start of the environmental movement.
"Earth Days" takes audiences to the start of environmentalism and to the creation of the first Earth Day in 1970. It explores several angles of the green push, from scientists to senators. With archival footage from the 1960s and '70s, the film is an education in the beginnings of a major culture shift.
"No Impact Man" examines environmentalism as it stands, and for Sturtz, what this film does is the "touchstone of True/False philosophy": it takes a global issue and turns it into a very personal story. The film follows a man and his family as they try to live for one year with zero impact -- the term used by the movement of people who try to cancel out all their "negative" contributions to the environment.
For environmental action more extreme than buying local food, True/False boasts "At the Edge of the World," a film about environmentalists who try to sabotage Japanese whaling ships with snare lines and stink bombs. Wilson describes the environmentalists as "modern day eco-pirates," a small group of vigilantes who try to stop the hunting of whales in the Antarctic by any means possible.
The west meets the world
Western culture inevitably clashes with other cultures, and contemporary filmmakers are capturing these struggles with both vexation and humor.
The film "Crude" follows a group of Ecuadorians and a team of American lawyers as they try to force a major oil company to pay for a series of small oil spills that have wreaked havoc on the Amazonian landscape. In what Sturtz calls "first world meets third world," "Crude" explores the life of the 30,000 members of indigenous tribes who take part in a long, tortuous legal battle against the oil companies.
On the more humorous side of things, "Carmen Meets Borat" is a film Sturtz said he is very excited about. The film relays the tale of the fallout in Glod, Romania, after Sacha Baron Cohen's infamous alter ego made a mockery of the town in the beginning of "Borat." Carmen, a teenage girl whose grandfather was featured in "Borat," puts a face to the town's humiliation and tells of its subsequent attempt to sue 20th Century Fox, the company that distributed "Borat." Sturtz said that he enjoyed not only Carmen's coming of age story, but also the portrayal of the small town's struggle to regain its good name.
The music within
In many cultures, music plays an important role in people's lives. "Sounds Like Teen Spirit" follows a group of teenagers from across Europe as they compete in an international singing competition. Another film, "Afghan Star," follows young Afghanis as they compete in an "American Idol"-style competition. However, neither of these films is really about who wins. Instead, both films depict teens as they struggle to achieve a common dream.
The music documentary can also play a cathartic role, as it does in "The Posters Came From the Walls." The film takes a look at diehard fans from places such as Iran and Canada as they go to any measure -- including crossing the Berlin Wall -- to see Depeche Mode concerts or, in some cases, just to buy bootlegged cassettes. Instead of focusing on what some might see as sheer absurdity, the film highlights one thing that can unite completely different groups of people from across the world: fandom.
Through the lens of a visionary
Every year, the festival awards one filmmaker with the True Vision Award. This award is given to the filmmaker who True/False believes most changed the documentary genre's future in the film industry. This year, the award was given to Kim Longinotto, who will be showing two films at the festival. The first, "Gaea Girls," was originally released in 2000, but it is being shown at this year's festival in honor of Longinotto. The film is about a Japanese training facility for female wrestlers, and in it Longinotto uncovers the terrible brutality and abuse the women undergo in their pursuit of a dream. Longinotto's newest film, "Rough Aunties," won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and it tells the story of a group of South African women helping abused children.
Words in action
One of the central themes of this year's festival is the role of journalists in today's society. True/False is featuring several films that showcase reporting from a variety of global sources. Sturtz's pick for the weekend is "Reporter." The film depicts New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof as he reports from the African nation of the Congo. The intensity reporting from the war-torn nation and the conflicting nature of journalism gives audiences an unapologetic look at how Kristof's award-winning articles make it into the Sunday edition of the Times.
The makers of "Blood Trail" followed photojournalist Robert King as he travels from Bosnia to Chechnya to Iraq over a 15-year period. It tells of how he matured into a veteran photojournalist while also dealing with the psychological toll of violence.
"Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country" is a vastly different film. Instead of featuring Americans, the film tells the story of Burmese journalists who tried to smuggle video footage to the outside media of the Burmese government's extreme brutality toward monks and peaceful protesters in 2007. This smuggled video not only depicts the brutality of the military, but also shows the estimated crowd of 100,000 who came and marched with the monks, demanding change. All of these films are intense, and they are also undeniably life-altering.