The True/False Film Fest returns February 27- March 2, 2014 with Magic Realism!

“Magic realism” first described a literary genre rooted in the everyday but peppered with the fantastical. In 2014, we’re recasting the phrase for our own subversive purposes. On the surface, Magic Realism describes how the festival weekend transforms the everyday, casting our quotidian downtown streetscape in a new light. Fresh surprises are as likely to lurk in a hidden alley as a darkened theater. Likewise, documentary filmmakers are every bit the masters of illusion, misdirection and sleight of hand as their fiction-focused brethren. The history of prestidigitation is one steeped in questions of Reality and Fantasy, exploring the intersection between the mundane and the fantastic.

This will be brought home in the 2014 poster which quotes “The Marvelous Orange Tree” illusion invented by Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, the father of modern magic. In it, a small barren tree is coaxed to produce first flowers and then fruit by a persuasive magician.The intricate cogs and gears of the mechanism, though in many ways every bit as wondrous a feat as the suggested illusion, are hidden from sight. This is the magic of all filmmaking- the careful cloaking of the watchworks to produce passion, marvel and delight. True/False 2014 aims to be steeped in this wonderment, whether the art is visual, musical or cinematic.

All passes for T/F 2014 are on sale now. For those who want to help create the magic, we are also accepting volunteer applications.