The True/False Film Fest returns for its fifth edition Leap Day Weekend, Feb. 28 - March 2, 2008. The festival highlights innovative work with a cinematic scope, creative takes on contemporary currents, and most of all work that provokes dialogue about its subject and the documentary form itself.

For four days, downtown Columbia, Missouri is transformed into a small-town Midwestern utopia.

Most films come freshly discovered from Sundance, Toronto and other festivals, others appear mysteriously before their official premieres elsewhere. Sandwiched between the nonstop movies, we throw parties, host debates and field trips, and challenge local filmmakers to reimagine the possibilities of nonfiction filmmaking.

The main venues are the Blue Note, the soon-to-open, two-screen Ragtag Cinema, the Forrest Theater at the Tiger Ballroom, as well as Stephens College's Macklanburg Playhouse, Windsor Auditorium and its little sister theater, The Den (normally called Charters Auditorium). Once again, Cherry St. Artisan serves as the festival box office and headquarters, and it's your first stop to pick up your pre-ordered passes and ticket packages. For those who don't have passes, it's your first place to purchase individual tickets starting on Feb. 28.

Linking the festival venues will be a special "pilgrimage walking route" and an art bus for those up for the 5-minute ride.

While passes are sold out, tickets are not. And then there's always the Q, a way for you to go up to the venue 30 minutes before showtime to potentially claim a seat. So stay tuned, clear your schedule and get ready for True/False's annual revival. We promise it'll be worth your while.

Welcome!

Leap day may have originated from a clerical need to recalibrate the Roman calendar, but for us, the coming of Leap Day Weekend is a welcoming invitation to bound past our boundaries, to expand ourselves past our comfort zones.

We started out this year debating internally whether we could have a fest at all. The Missouri Theatre was closing for renovations, Ragtag was trying to move. It all seemed a little overwhelming. But we decided to take the leap, jumping into the unknown with the hope that a net would appear.

In his book "Landscapes of Fear," cultural geographer I-Fu Tuan describes how Americans clearcut the unruly forests of the New World so as to allay anxieties about the dangers contained within. In forging ahead with this year's fest, we challenged ourselves to hike through the thickets that remain, and to do it fearlessly, enthusiastically. We faced the challenges and reminded ourselves that the joy of our jobs (and we are so, so lucky) comes from discovering stories that astonish... films that crackle with the unexpected and confront our expectations.

This year, films burst out from unexpected places and then carried us somewhere surprising. The ones with the most hard-hitting, overtly political agendas seemed to fall flat, again and again. Instead, we responded most enthusiastically to films rooted in an observational style that dunked us head-first into the heart of the matter, without too much explanation or commentary. Political and social relevance mattered, but often acted as context rather than foreground. We'll admit to being reluctant viewers some of the time — Seinfeld wasn't lying when he said that docs are often depressing. But what he neglected to mention was how richly layered the good ones really are. Films about schizophrenics living together in a motel, a Russian mother of nine, or a school for violently disturbed children — all sounded bleak and harrowing. But each time, we emerged delighted, even elated because our prejudices had been upended, our fears dashed. We felt expanded.

And thus expanded, we knew what it would take to pull off True/False 2008. We crossed College Avenue and found a home and a partner in Stephens College. They have embraced us wholeheartedly, and we are tremendously grateful. Also fresh is our new Ragtag Cinema on Hitt Street — an old soda factory remade into new public space that we hope will be around for a good while.

So, it's probably no coincidence that, through these last many uncertain months, we dreamed up the subject for this year's poster, brough to glorious life by Columbia artist David Spear. It depicts two children (based on Lee Elementary's Eze Pojmann-Ezeonilo and Rachel Kwon, since moved to Korea ) clearly acting on faith and hope, leaping over a great divide to an uncertain future. With tongue in cheek, we call the painting "The Future Perfect." But as we gather together with our friends and neighbors — including more than 350 volunteers! — to welcome our remarkable international guests, we can't help but think that maybe there's something to the name. Here's to the four-day utopia that is True/False, and to the energy it gives us to venture into the unknown. Welcome.

Paul Sturtz & David Wilson
Co-conspirators