I don't consider my corner of Indiana to be the Great White North. I have family from Michigan, they would not allow such misrepresentation. What's more, my parents live in Kansas City which has been all but completely buried in snow over the last couple weeks. So I don't have it all that bad. But no matter the severity of the winter, cabin fever sets in and the occasional weekend adventure staves off the Shining-level crazy. So, this weekend Boyfriend and I headed to...
.....Columbia, Missouri!
...for a documentary film festival!
...where we saw exclusively political films!
First, I'm not kidding and second, it was a fantastic time. I see, though, that you're going to need some convincing. Fine. Let me start by saying that we had a bunch of family in town (my parents and uncles, Boyfriend's parents, aunt and uncle) and with these people we could have congregated at a rest area in the middle of nowhere and had a blast. Luckily we were not in the middle of nowhere and therefore could eat ourselves silly. Cafe Berlin has vegetarian biscuits and gravy that I would happily choose over a real sausage version any day of the week.
The reason we'd all come to Columbia though was for True/False, a documentary film festival in its tenth year. There are dozens of movies to see over the course of a long weekend. Serious, funny, sad, Sundance alums and premier showings. We chose a package this year that allowed us to pick three of the more major offerings. All of our movies were political in nature yet distinct from each other. What I thought would be a heavy, dry series of facts and talking heads was actually very engaging.
The first movie we saw was No, a dramatic interpretation of the advertisers who devised the 1988 political campaigns which contributed to the downfall of Augusto Pinochet. I was a Communications major in college and am usually fascinated by the world of professional advertising (although I've given Mad Men a couple tries and it's never stuck for whatever reason). The movie uses real footage from those TV campaigns and the rest of the movie was shot to match those clips- kind of an Instagram treatment for film as a producer said afterward at the Q&A (a perk of True/False, staying after to hear the people responsible talk about their work).
Our second choice was Manhunt which, as far as I understand, is the real information behind Zero Dark Thirty. It was really interesting to see the whole process of searching for a terrorist explained. There are a lot of people who dedicate the better parts of their careers to learning everything they can about one guy half way around the world. The final movie we saw was Dirty Wars which was disturbing and educational, disheartening and eye-opening. It addresses night raids and secret missions by the military in the Middle East. As the credits rolled one part of me wanted to cry while another part wanted to run into the street screaming. There are so many destructive, immoral things happening every day that are kept so well hidden. Those films certainly made my day-to-day dilemmas seem laughable.
This certainly wasn't the most uplifted I've been by True/False. A few years ago I saw a great film called The Mirror about an Italian village's plan to get more sunlight into their little mountain community. The first year my family went my parents saw Racing Dreams, about kids who race go-carts and aspire to be NASCAR drivers. But, that's the beauty of this now not so little festival. There is a reason for anyone to return year after year. My reasons are many, interesting films, a weekend away and of course, biscuits and gravy with the fam.
Next weekend adventure? Bourbon tasting in Kentucky for Boyfriend's early birthday present. Here's hoping this trip involves considerably less snow.
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