Six years ago, the True/False Film Festival founded the True Life Fund, a philanthropic effort that raises money and awareness for the subjects of a different nonfiction film each year. Presented in partnership with The Crossing and with media support from KOMU, we’re delighted to announce that this year’s True Life Fund film is Bully. This remarkable film chronicles a year in the life of five students and their families, who courageously share their experiences with bullying in schools. The film goes into its subjects’ homes, follows them to town-hall meetings, meetings with principals, and even rides along on bus routes (where much of the worst violence occurs) in order to provide an unsparing look at the urgent and deep societal problem of bullying in schools.
This year, The Bertha Foundation, whose mission is to affect positive change in the world through the combined efforts of activist lawyers, storytellers, and social and political entrepreneurs, has pledged to match up to $15,000 of the funds raised by the True Life Fund. Support for the Fund comes from outreach within the Columbia community and generous donations from True/False attendees. This combined effort seeks to raise more than $30,000 for the subjects of Bully.
Directed and produced by by Sundance and Emmy–award winner Lee Hirsch, Bully goes undercover in American schools to reveal the horrors of bullying and the effects it has on kids and families. The film puts a personal face on this systemic problem, which manifests itself in the lives of 13 million children and their families each year. “The young heroes and heroines in our film inspire audiences and compel them to take a stand,” Hirsch said. “The opportunity to honor these brave kids and give back is a true blessing. I cannot wait for the audiences of True/False to experience Bully and meet these amazing kids and families.”
The money raised by the fund will go to the three main characters of the film, Alex, Kelby, and Ja’Meya, who still struggle with the adverse effects of bullying. A portion of the fund will also go to the Stand for the Silent Foundation, a group started by another family profiled in the film: Kirk Smalley, whose son Ty took his own life after being bullied. This donation to Stand for the Silent honors families who have lost children to bullying-related suicide.
Each year, the True Life Fund seeks to “demonstrate that documentaries create change” by offering “tangible and meaningful assistance to the subjects” of one film at the True/False Film Fest. It’s an effort True/False co-founder David Wilson says he is “immensely proud of.”
Donations to the fund can be made online by visiting the True Life Fund page.
The Columbia Public Library and 102.3 BXR are hosting a free True/False primer this Saturday, February 4, from noon to 1:30 p.m. According to the library, the program will include:
a step-by-step explanation of all things True/False, including a Q-and-A session with festival organizers. Plus, you’ll get an exclusive sneak peek at a few films before the schedule is released, and two lucky winners will receive a free pair of True/False passes.
In honor of T/F, the library is also screening two docs—Chris Rock’s Good Hair (2009) and Kati with an I (2010)—in their Center Aisle Cinema series, also free. A T/F favorite, Kati‘s director Robert Greene will be in attendance.
We are still accepting volunteer applications, but spaces are filling up quickly, so sign up soon.
We especially need Set-Up Team volunteers who are available during the day (9 a.m.–6 p.m.), Feb. 27–March 1, and on March 5. (Requires heavy lifting.) It’s a great way to get your volunteer hours in before and after the Fest, so you have the weekend free to watch some docs!
The final deadline for submissions to Gimme Truth!—T/F’s real-and-fake documentary game show—is fast approaching.
Send in your two-minute (or less) documentary profile of a 100 percent fake Missouri resident—or a 100 percent real one—by February 16 for a chance to make it into the top ten, and possibly all the way.
More information, including rules and regulations, is on the Gimme Truth! page.
Construction on the poster for the 2012 True/False Film festival is now complete. Check it out:
The poster was created by Los Angeles–based designer Erik Buckham. He also directed this year’s awesome animated trailer, which you may have already seen on TV:
The theme of this year’s poster is “The Influencing Machine,” an idea that True/False co-conspirators David Wilson and Paul Sturtz first ran across in an essay by Christopher Turner in Cabinet magazine. The essay tells the story of Victor Tausk, a student of Sigmund Freud’s, who studied the elaborate mechanical constructions that schizophrenics invented to explain their delusions. These “Influencing Machines,” in Tausk’s description, resembled nothing so much as psychological, paranoid film projectors. (read more »)
To you, the decorated, dallying dreamers of the Missouri River bottoms. To you, the lovers of music, of trailside surprises, of heaps of delectable foodstuffs. To you, the dancers in the mist garden, the hikers up the hill, the headbangers in the park, we raise our glasses.
After the feast and fireworks were over (big thanks to our friends at Spirit of 76), we remembered what we love most about Columbia. It is a town that embraces our wildest ideas and makes them even better than we had hoped. And as long as the joy and mania of these events endures, we’ll keep doing them.
So thank you. Each of you who rode a bike or played a fiddle or helped us stretch or taught us Ozark history. Thanks to the tech team who hauled speakers and screen with index finger held aloft waiting for the wind to change and the skies to open. Thanks to our partners at Les Bourgeois, at Schlafly, at Patchwork, Goatsbeard, Uprise and the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture for the food and drink. Thanks to Walt’s for fixing flats and donating a great giveaway. Thanks to the Tribune and BXR for spreading the word, to Delta Systems for keeping our web site afloat, and to Off Track Events for keeping us all pedaling in the right direction.
Visit our Facebook page to check out the latest photos from the day (we’ll be posting more as they roll in). If you stopped at the Bur Oak, those portraits will be posted on Facebook very soon. And please note that the one-of-a-kind messenger bag from Leif Labs (accompanied by a $50 gift certificate to the Butterfly Tattoo) is still unclaimed, so if you have raffle ticket # 292416, please let us know.
It was a great Dawdle. Let’s do it again sometime. Perhaps August 18, 2012?
The True/False Film Fest (March 1-4, 2012, www.truefalse.org) is gearing up for its ninth year of celebrating non-fiction cinema and is seeking out documentaries from all over the globe. True/False is interested in championing fresh, exciting voices in documentary, as well as works that tiptoe, or perhaps demolish, the line separating fact and fiction.
True/False takes place in Columbia, MO, USA, a smart and enthusiastic community that embraces the festival and all its components—screenings, panels, parties, parade, game show, etc.—in a major way. True/False brings in a filmmaker to represent each feature film in its program, covering travel, lodging and pass, and offering an unparalleled experience.
To see what other filmmakers, including James Marsh (Man On Wire, Project Nim), Adam Curtis (The Power of Nightmares) and Laura Poitras (The Oath), have to say about the festival experience, check out http://truefalse.org/about/endorsements
Back for its second year, the Boone Dawdle brings together some of the best things in life — biking, music, food, nature, and film. It’s also a fun, outdoorsy way for you to show your support of True/False in the off-season. Can we call it a tradition yet? (read more »)
The second annual Boone Dawdle will take place on Saturday, August 20. Join us for a surprise-filled bike ride from Columbia to the Blufftop Bistro of Les Bourgeois Winery, where we’ll enjoy a local foods picnic and watch a film overlooking the Missouri River once the sun goes down. Tickets will go on sale in June.
