Each year, a (mostly) new crop of Ringleaders assume the coveted role of magnanimous festival emcees. Seen on stage before and after all screenings, they facilitate snappy introductions and attentive Q&As with the special guests here to present their films to True/False audiences. The responsibility of being a Ringleader is offered to industry professionals and festival friends from across the world, who have demonstrated the chops necessary to be an agent of True/False, to lure them to the middle of Missouri. It is always a privilege and a delight to have each of them here working with us for this brief but bustling weekend.
2025 Ringleaders
Steve Bognar, Ohio-based documentary filmmaker
Bedatri Datta Choudhury, Journalist and festival programmer
Brit Fryer, Filmmaker (Tessitura, The Script)
Chase Whiteside, Filmmaker
Daniel Hymanson, Filmmaker
Emily Mkrtichian, Filmmaker
Eric Hynes, Film Critic & Curator of Film at Museum of the Moving Image
Hillary Bachelder, Filmmaker
Inney Prakash, Curator of Film at the Asia Society/Artistic Director of Prismatic Ground
Ingrid Roettgen, Documentary Editor and Filmmaker
Julian Carrington, International Features Programmer, Hot Docs
Jasmín Mara López, Filmmaker
Katie Mathews, Filmmaker / Professor at Hunter College
Kayla Myers, Director of Programming at Indie Memphis
Kiyoko McCrae, Program Director, Chicken & Egg Films
Naeema Jamilah Torres, Filmmaker + Executive Director of Mezcla Media Collective
Ruun Nuur, Co-founder of NO EVIL EYE CINEMA and Features Programmer at Cleveland International Film Festival
Samah Ali, Festival and Inflight Entertainment Programmer
Seth Gadsden, Filmmaker & Educator + Co-Conspirator, Femme Frontera & Media Arts Center San Diego
Zuri Obi, Film & Conference Programmer at New Orleans Film Society
David Wilson, Co-Conspirator, True/False Film Fest
AMBER LOVE Fest Programmer
AMADA TORRUELLA Fest Programmer
OUMA AMADOU Ragtag Cinema Programmer & Community Partnerships Coordinator
CHLOE TRAYNER RFS Artistic Director
& your friendly Programming Coordinator and Ringmaster MAYA BELL