Chase Pray
Drona multi-instrumentalist Arjuna Raghu sings into a microphone on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Missouri Theatre in Columbia, Mo. “It's the ultimate form of artistic validation to have people listen and hum along and dance to the music you make,” Raghu said.
On Sunday night Missouri Theatre hosted Buskers Last Stand, the annual True/False Film Fest closing event. Columbia-based musicians and half brothers Kyren Penrose and Westin Archer took the stage with drona, another Columbia-based band formed by siblings Arjuna, Surya and Pasha Raghu.
Penrose, who has been performing at True/False on and off for nearly a decade, felt honored to be a part of the festival’s final event.
“It means a lot,” Penrose said. “I feel like I have always done Buskers Last Stand. The first time I did True/False, I was probably 15 or 16 years old and I’ve done on and off different years since then and I’m 24 now.”
Drona alternated performances with Penrose and Archer throughout the show. The artists shared plenty of praise for one another, with Penrose saying that drona used to attend his high school band’s shows.
“Eventually we went and met up with them and watched them play their shows and stuff after I was already kind off of the scene,” Penrose said. “It’s really awesome.”
The nearly full venue showed their support for the musicians by singing and dancing along to the music. Drona multi-instrumentalist, Arjuna Raghu, was pleased with how the night went.
“I think it went amazingly,” Raghu said. “It was a room of smiling people, warm room, dancing to some music, talking amongst each other and celebrating this weekend. It’s the ultimate form of artistic validation to have people listen and hum along and dance to the music you make.”
As the event winded down, so did the 2025 True/False Film Fest. In the festival’s four day span over 30 feature documentaries and 24 short documentaries were shown, including seven world premieres and 14 documentaries that were made by first-time feature directors.
You can keep up with The Maneater’s 2025 True/False Film Fest coverage here.
Edited by Alyssa Royston | aroyston@themaneater.com
Copyedited by Hannah Taylor | htaylor@themaneater.com
Edited by Annie Goodykoontz | agoodykoontz@themaneater.com