The film projectors have been taken down and put into storage, the banners and artwork are gone from our streets, the churches that were temporarily theaters are churches once again and the out-of-town hipsters are back in Brooklyn. The True/False Film Fest is over, and it’s a sad thing indeed. It’s the 26th of December. It’s the day after your birthday.
But don’t despair. Another True/False is on its way in less than a year’s time, and we have plenty of memories of this past weekend to occupy us with nostalgia until then. This isn’t the time to count the days that have yet to come, but to reflect warmly on those that have already come to pass. And so I offer these, my four best moments of True/False 2012.
**1. Standing up against bullying.** “Bully,” a chronicle of middle and high school bullying and this year’s True Life Fund recipient, left not a dry eye in the house in the sold out Missouri Theatre as it had been an emotionally powerful and touching experience from opening to closing credits. But that was just the beginning. Just as the roaring standing ovation for the film had ended, tears had been wiped away and the audience was sitting down or making their way to leave, out came the teenage subjects of the documentary. Without missing a beat, the audience sprang back to their feet, applauded with genuine emotion, and began shedding tears anew onto their recently dried cheeks. We had seen these kids ridiculed, beaten and shunned, and had welcomed them and their families firmly into our hearts. And to see them standing there, beaming and standing awkwardly in front of a crowd of thousands cheering and standing up just for them, was a truly special experience none of us will soon forget.
**2. Morgan Spurlock is hilarious.** We all know Morgan Spurlock as the guy who ate nothing but McDonald’s for a month and filmed the experience. Maybe even some of us know him also for the successful career as a documentary filmmaker he’s had beyond “Super Size Me.” But when he came to the stage to announce his new film, “Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope,” those lucky enough to be in attendance began to know him as something else: a comedian. This man sure knows how to work a crowd and how to tell a joke. I don’t know exactly where it came from, this charisma, but just in case, get me 30 Big Macs ASAP.
**3. Busking the night away.** Music probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a film festival (nor should it be), but that doesn’t mean you should discount the contribution buskers (the musical acts that play onstage before a screening) bring to the overall experience of True/False. They set the mood, they entertain and they help to fill long silences in awkward pre-screening chatter. Sometimes they even bring the house down. Brooklyn-based band Pearl and the Beard’s performance before Saturday’s Jesse Auditorium screening of “Comic-Con” was energetic, fun and vocally impressive (those high notes!), and managed to elicit just as much applause as the film itself, surely securing the band a theater full of new fans, myself included.
**4. A visit from an Oscar nominee.** The rumor that James Franco had made a visit to Columbia for this year’s fest didn’t catch the blogosphere alight quite as much as the Brad Pitt fiasco of ’11, so I guess we learned our lesson. But the funny thing is, this time the rumors were true! Nothing quite compares to that exhilarated feeling that you might catch a glimpse of someone famous, or may even talk to them (and get a cool story to tell at parties for years). That, coupled with the hilarious tweets that inevitably followed (@NassimBnchabane: JAMES FRANCO FOUND AGAIN INSIDE @CAFEBERLIN, DEVOURING @HOTBOXCOOKIES, CONFESSES EXTREME GUILT OVER FILMING “YOUR HIGHNESS” #FAKELIVETWEET), kind of make the fact that the Franco actually showed up for a showing of Secret Screening Green seem rather irrelevant. (Plus, if you missed this Oscar nominee, you could find an actual Academy Award at the screening of “Undefeated,” so there’s that.)
**5. Technical difficulties.** The mood at the Missouri Theatre before the final screening of the festival was bittersweet, consisting of a mixture of satisfaction with the weekend’s events and a sadness that it was all coming to an end. After every single member of the True/False staff (sans volunteers) made their way to the stage for a heartfelt good-bye, the lights in the theater dimmed and the final screening, “Searching for Sugarman,” began. And then it cut out after a minute. Oops. And then it came back on, but with no sound. Double oops. But you won’t hear me complaining. It was a funny, lighthearted moment that so beautifully cut the tension, you’d almost think it was planned. It even allowed for an impromptu Q&A session with the creator of True/False himself as the crew in the projection room tried to get things going again, which they eventually did after only a few minutes. All in all, it was an appropriately fun and quirky sendoff to a fun and quirky festival, as we finally were able to settle in for “Searching for Sugarman,” which, as my pick for Best in Show, well justified the wait.