True/False Film Fest is always packed with inspiring and awe-worthy documentaries, but this year, True/False has teamed up with KBIA to interview the directors of these films.
The new True/False Podcast lets listeners go behind the scenes of their favorite True/False documentaries and hear directors talk about their work on. True/False and KBIA joined forces to create this podcast that highlights the “art and craft of nonfiction storytelling,” according to a news release.
Each installment of the podcast will feature a different director or film critic and focus on a particular characteristic of nonfiction storytelling that the director produces. The first episode was released Feb. 23 and featured directors Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe of _The Bad Kids_, a film about students from Black Rock High School, from last year’s festival. This podcast focuses on the directors’ abilities to follow all of the characters of their documentary and show their development effectively throughout.
“We’re focusing on one specific topic per episode so they have a long shelf life,” KBIA news director Ryan Famuliner said. “So a listener can go back and listen to one of these podcasts a year from now.”
The podcast series will release installments this weekend and next weekend, but from there it will be a biweekly installment, with around 10-12 episodes per season. Each episode will have sounds from the festival as interludes woven throughout the piece to draw the listeners into the True/False Film Fest setting as they hear their favorite documentary being discussed.
Famuliner said the partnership works well because KBIA and True/False have similar audiences. True/False education director & True Life Fund coordinator Allison Coffelt hosts these podcasts, and KBIA and True/False both work in producing and editing them along with a few Missouri School of Journalism students.
Coffelt, not having worked with radio prior to this past summer at a week-long immersive radio workshop, interviews subjects in the KBIA studio if they can make it to Columbia. If not, the interviews are conducted via Skype or are done remotely.
“I am looking forward to talking with the director of _Quest_, Jonathan Olshefski, and the family it’s based on, the Rainey family,” Coffelt said. She plans on interviewing them during their time at True/False Film Fest.
According to a press release, some other directors that True/False and KBIA have lined up are Craig Atkinson and Laura Hartrick, the directors of _Do Not Resist_, who will talk about how they were granted access to high-security locations. Bill and Turner Ross, the directors of _Contemporary Color_, _Western_ and _Tchoupitoulas_, will discuss creating documentaries as real-life experiences.
The True/False Podcast will also feature Eric Hynes, a film critic for the New York Times and curator at the Museum of the Moving Image, who will discuss the future of documentary cinema.
“I hope the audience enjoys it and learns some things and are challenged to think differently about media or topics,” Famuliner said of the podcast.
The first episode of the True/False podcast can be found [online](http://kbia.org/programs/truefalse-podcast#stream/0 ) or downloaded through iTunes or Stitcher.
_Edited by Victoria Cheyne | vcheyne@themaneater.com_
