True/False Fest is happening now and we are skipping it for budgetary reasons. We discovered the fest in 2017 and faithfully attended (virtually in 2021) for eight years, with all the t-shirts and posters to prove it. Sure, I complained about the quality of films the last couple years and started making alternative “False/True” lists of movies that should’ve played the fest, but we’re always happy to be there in packed theaters, applauding movies destined for streaming which will never be seen on the big screen again, with their directors present for intros and Q&As, grabbing beers and pierogis and talking about pictures and stories instead of our regular lives for one long weekend. We’ll try to think of something to replace it this year, but in the meantime here’s a roundup of those years (not counting shorts, since this is already long enough).
2017:
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Brimstone & Glory
Casting JonBenet
Communion
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
Dina
Distant Constellation
Donkeyote
Gulistan, Land of Roses
HyperNormalization
I Am Not Your Negro
Lindy Lou, Juror Number 2
Long Strange Trip
LoveTrue
Manifesto
Mimi (2003)
Quest
Rat Film
Step
Still Tomorrow
Stranger in Paradise
Strong Island
The Challenge
The Graduation
The Grown-Ups
The Road Movie
Venus
Whose Streets?
* Austerlitz
* Dawson City: Frozen Time
* Escapes
* Fire at Sea
2018:
Adriana’s Pact
America
American Animals
Bisbee ’17
Black Mother
Caniba
Combat Obscura
Crime + Punishment
Gabriel and the Mountain
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Handsworth Songs (1987)
Kinshasa Makambo
La Flor de la Vida
Lovers of the Night
Makala
The Next Guardian
Of Fathers and Sons
Primas
Shakedown
Shirkers
Taming the Horse
The Task
Testament (1988)
The Family
The Rider
Three Identical Strangers
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
* Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
* Faces Places
* Infinite Football
* Narcissister Organ Player
* A River Below
* Wormwood
2019:
Amazing Grace
American Factory
Apollo 11
Atman (1997)
Caballerango
Chinese Portrait
Cold Case Hammarskjöld
Finding Frances
The Game
The Grand Bizarre
The Hottest August
Island of the Hungry Ghosts
The Magic Life of V
Midnight Traveler
Mike Wallace is Here
Mr. Soul!
Now Something Is Slowly Changing
One Child Nation
Segunda Vez
Tanjuska and the 7 Devils (1993)
Treasure Island
Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary
Up the Mountain
* Aquarela
* Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream
* Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
* What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?
2020:
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
Boys State
Catskin
Collective
Crestone
Dick Johnson Is Dead
Dope is Death
The Faculties
The Giverny Document
Malni, towards the ocean, towards the shore
The Metamorphosis of Birds
The Mole Agent
Ridge
So Late So Soon
Some Kind of Heaven
Still/Here (2001)
Talking About Trees
That Cloud Never Left
Those That, at a Distance, Resemble Another
Time
The Viewing Booth
* The American Sector
* Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds
* In Transit (2015)
* Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue
* This Is Not a Movie: Robert Fisk and the Politics of Truth
* The Truffle Hunters
2021:
All Light, Everywhere
Delphine’s Prayers
Faya Dayi
From the Wild Sea
The Grocer’s Son, the Mayor, the Village and the World
No Kings
Rock Bottom Riser
Songs that Flood the River
Summer of Soul
The Two Faces of a Bamileke Woman
This Rain Will Never Stop
Users
* Can’t Get You Out of My Head
* Gunda
* Her Socialist Smile
* In the Same Breath
* A Man and A Camera
* The Mole: Undercover in North Korea
* Radiograph of a Family
* Terra Femme
* Town Bloody Hall (1979)
2022:
2nd Chance
After Sherman
The Balcony Movie
Brotherhood
Canoa: A Shameful Memory (1976)
Children of the Mist
Dos Estaciones
Eventually
Fire of Love
I Didn’t See You There
It Runs in the Family
Last Days of August
Mija
No U-Turn
Octopus
Riotsville, U.S.A.
Sirens
The Territory
We Met in Virtual Reality
Where Are We Headed?
* Burial
* Il Buco
* Language of Birds
* Mutzenbacher
* Procession
* Rewind & Play
* Taming the Garden
* Topology of Sirens
* The United States of America
2023:
Anhell69
Art Talent Show
Bad Press
Bobi Wine
Crossing Voices
Dogwatch
Feet in Water, Head on Fire
Forms of Forgetting
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Going Varsity in Mariachi
Hummingbirds
Last Things
Milisuthando
A Moment of Innocence (1996)
Moosa Lane
Our Body
Ramona
Three Women
Time Bomb Y2K
* All That Breathes
* The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft
* Reality
* Subject
* The Tuba Thieves
2024:
Agent of Happiness
Alien Island
As the Tide Comes In
Daughters
Girls State
Gwetto
Ibelin
Look Into My Eyes
Magic Mountain
The Other Profile
A Photographic Memory
Spermworld
Sr
There Was, There Was Not
Three Promises
Union
* Dahomey
* Flipside
* Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros
* The Night Visitors
* Pictures of Ghosts
* Ren Faire