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.
2019 Ringleaders
JEANELLE AUGUSTIN, coordinator of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program
MIRIAM BALE, artistic director of the Indie Memphis Film Festival
CECILIA BARRIONUEVO, artistic director of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival
NELSON CARVAJAL, video essayist and film critic
SAMARA GRACE CHADWICK, senior programmer at Points North Institute and Camden International Film Festival
ASHLEY CLARK, senior repertory and specialty film programmer at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and 2018 T/F Neither/Nor programmer-critic
ROONEY ELMI, founding editor and curator of SVLLY(wood)
CHLOE GBAI, shorts and streaming producer at AmDoc (POV)
MICAH GOTTLIEB, assistant programmer at the Quad Cinema
NIKKI HEYMAN, co-producer at AmDoc (POV)
ERIC HYNES, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image and the inaugural T/F Neither/Nor programmer-critic in 2013
JASON FITZROY JEFFERS, co-founder of Third Horizon and director of the Third Horizon Film Festival
LEIGH KOLB, programmer of the Riverside Short Film Festival and T/F screening committee member
MELISSA LYDE, founder and curator of Alfreda’s Cinema and the new media manager at Film Movement
EDWIN MARTINEZ, filmmaker, cinematographer, and editor (To Be Heard, T/F 2011)
NICK PINKERTON, film critic and 2016 T/F Neither/Nor programmer-critic
TRACY RECTOR, filmmaker, producer, and co-founder of Longhouse Media
JASON SILVERMAN, cinematheque director at the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe
REA TAJIRI, filmmaker, visual artist, and associate professor of Film Media Arts at Temple University
CHLOE WALTERS-WALLACE, documentary lab manager at Firelight Media
CHASE WHITESIDE, filmmaker (América, T/F 2018)
STEVE WITZIG, associate professor at UMass-Dartmouth and former print traffic controller for T/F
STACEY WOELFEL, director of the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism
Fest Staff
BARBIE BANKS, Managing Director, Ragtag Cinema
CHRIS BOECKMANN, Programming Director, True/False & Ragtag Cinema
JEREMY BROWN, Executive Director, Ragtag Film Society
ALLISON COFFELT, Education & Outreach Director
AMIR GEORGE, Programmer
POLINA MALIKIN, Education Advisor & Schemer
PAUL STURTZ, Artistic Director & Co-Conspirator
ABBY SUN, Programmer
DAVID WILSON, Co-Conspirator
& your friendly Ringmasters: JORDAN INMAN & SARAH HAAS