Many new photos are now on the T/F Photos page, including this thoughtful portrait of forty-seven cupcakes by Scott Patrick Meyers:

(read more »)

Yesterday at the fest I ran into the director of Secret Screening Orange, whose identity I am forbidden from revealing. She (or it could be a he! I cannot say!) took a moment to tell me why a director might agree to participate in T/F’s unique Secret Screenings.—Andrew Leland

Billy Schuh sent us this photo from Thursday night’s Bass Drum of Death show at the Mojo’s Showcase:

Jamie Davis of Hott Lunch (left), Leah Cheney (T/F 2011 music coordinator, center), and Kyle Stewart of Richard the Lionhearted (right) were walking out of Mojo’s when a bystander shouted STOP! Schuh says he thought there was an emergency, possibly a fire. No one was harmed, thankfully—it just turns out that a too-close proximity to awesome music also gives one a dangerous tendency to wear jean jackets over striped shirts.

In certain sectors of industry, the term “greenfield” is used to describe a project that strikes into virgin territory. Built from entirely scratch, greenfield projects cultivate previously undeveloped terrain. Along these lines, it seems fair to say that Lauren Greenfield’s latest film, The Queen of Versailles, is a Greenfield through and through. Following a family of billionaires as they set out to build America’s largest home, the film offers audiences an entirely fresh take on the collapse of the real-estate bubble. The film earned Greenfield the award for Best U.S. Director at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Magnolia Pictures in January. The Queen of Versailles screened thrice at True/False 2012: the last showing is today! (Check the schedule for details.)—Joe Bookman

TRUE/FALSE: Do you feel as though The Queen of Versailles is an obvious outgrowth of your prior creative work, or does it feel in some ways like a fresh turn in your artistic career?

LAUREN GREENFIELD: I do feel that The Queen of Versailles has grown out of my work from the last two decades, but the making of this film has also been a creative breakthrough for me as a director. The film originally grew out of my long-term photography project about wealth, consumerism, and the American Dream. The Queen of Versailles was a natural extension of my work on those themes, but took on a creative momentum of its own as a stand-alone story that became an allegory about the overreaching of America and the subsequent fall we have experienced at almost every level of the socioeconomic spectrum.

I attended the Sundance Documentary Edit and Story Lab last summer and that was a transformational experience for me as a filmmaker. It deepened my understanding of the characters, the narrative, and the story structure, and increased my confidence with the material. I crossed over into filmmaking in 2004 after working as a photographer for the twelve years prior. Although my last three films, Thin, kids +money , and Beauty Culture are close to my heart, I feel The Queen of Versailles is the first full realization of the aesthetic and sociological voice of my photography in my filmmaking.

(read more »)

Tiny Attic presents highlights from Day Two of the True/False Film Fest:

Have you wondered how the indefatigable French four-piece Les Trois Coups ended up busking their brains out at every juncture this T/F weekend? Kristin Torres caught them in a rare unfrenzied moment to get the back-story. Take a listen:

Dubb Nubb, returning as buskers to this year’s fest, serenade their listeners with songs of soldiers, mud cities, and kindergarten weddings. When they’re not busking, they do things like lead songs at Hebrew School and deliver singing Valentines (with fellow 2012 T/F busker Lizzie Wright) around Columbia.

The duo recently became a trio when their older sister Amanda joined twins Delia and Hannah in order to help them keep time on the road last spring. Look for the twins warming up the T/F crowds this year with their freaky, folky ditties. For a preview, visit their BandCamp page, or listen to their session on Daytrotter.

—Zac Early

T/F: What kinds of experiences did you have growing up that made you give songwriting and performing a try? What kind of music was playing in your home?

DELIA RAINEY: Well, Hannah started playing guitar when she was ten. Our dad plays guitar and he taught her how. We always grew up listening to music. My parents blaring music on the stereo like every morning is how we woke up.

HANNAH RAINEY: A very artsy, musical family.

AMANDA RAINEY: And they took us to see a lot of shows. We would go to concerts in our pajamas on the weekends. Going to shows was such a part of our family.

(read more »)

Day Two of the fest is in full swing, and despite the manic-depressive weather (I am snow; I am rain; I am sad), True/False is charging forward into the second full day of programming. The reports continue to roll in. Billy Schuh, music co-coordinator for the fest, wrote in about the multilingual challenges of the reception of Les Trois Coups:

After confirming the booking, travel, and itinerary for the band, the music team planned out the logistics of their arrival to Columbia. At the time we knew that at least one member spoke English, but we soon realized that we needed not only to arrange for transportation, but we also had to find someone who spoke French to serve as a translator.

(read more »)

This year, True/False is proud to announce the inaugural Hi-Def Academy, a program that gives Columbia public high-school students a chance to get a closer look at the makings of a film festival. Students screen films and speak with directors from the fest lineup. I sat down with True/False education and outreach coordinator Polina Malikin to get an idea of what the Hi-Def Academy students have been up to, and what they can expect during the festival.

—Kristin Torres

TRUE/FALSE: Tell us about how the idea for the Hi Def Academy came about, and what the participants will get to do over the festival weekend.

POLINA MALIKIN: The idea is — we have this festival with all these amazing resources. How do we make it accessible and inspiring for young people in our community? From the start, True/False has given out free tickets and held filmmaker visits to reach out to the young people in our community and engage them in the festival, but we wanted to do something more intensive this year. So we created two new programs, and the Hi-Def Academy is one of them. We’re giving them a behind-the-scenes look at the festival. So the group gets to go together through the festival, meet filmmakers, see films together, and kind of have this inside view of how the festival works. And after the festival, they’ll talk to True/False staff to debrief and understand—not just, “OK, let’s talk about the issues in this documentary, let’s talk about documentary or art-making in general”—but talk about how a community event like this is put together.

(read more »)

For each day of True/False, we’ll be uploading short films featuring highlights from the fest’s sights and sounds. It’ll all be collected on the T/F Video Page, and on Vimeo.

Without further ado, we proudly present DAY ONE, featuring Les Trois Coups:

Also: check out the T/F Photos page for more highlights!