There's an atmosphere I appreciate at True/False. A sort of optimism that community isn't dead. Here we all are, in person, to watch documentaries.
Many years there seems to be a soft theme. Films take time to make, so the headlines from 2-3 years ago usually have a few films coming out trying to make sense of everything. This year, the soft theme seemed to be protest.
I saw seven films this year. In order of my least favorite (still great) to my favorite.
How Deep is Your Love
How Deep is Your Love is an incredible look at the passion of scientists. A group of marine biologists send a deep sea drone to the bottom of the ocean to get high-definition video of the life there.
These are the real deal scientist, where they are excited for finding something as simple as a mollusk shell.
There's a lot of "first time ever seen in action" footage.
But this is all against the backdrop of this science being funded by oil companies who want to do deep sea oil drilling. At one point, Green Peace boards the science vessel.
Another reason why it's so important for our government to fund science like this. Scientist don't have to study their passion only to hand it over to a company.
A Want In Her
This was a tough one to watch. A 28 year old film maker documents the struggles of caring for divorced parents, her father with mental health issues and her mother a raging alcoholic. Her uncle plays a role as psudo-adult in the family since the matriarch of the family dying is what put everything they deal with into motion.
She has to come to terms with what boundaries she needs to put in place to take care of her self, while balancing wanting her mother to live.
The camera is unedited in the face of the drunk mother, lamenting that she wants to be sober and have time with her daughter, and her father, who lives in an abandoned caravan.
WTO / 99
Archival footage put together to tell a story of mass protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle.
This was maybe the last time that it didn't matter your demographic: young vs old, left vs right, ethnicity, religion, etc. Everyone was on the streets to protest millionaires (soon to be billionaires) running a shadowy Capitalist government.
It's a protest movement that kept gaining momentum until 9/11 happened and those in charge unfortunately were able to divide us and divert our attention to nationalism.
The Dating Game
Taking place in China, where men outnumber women something like 112 to 100, this film focuses on "Dating Experts" trying to teach young men on how to stand out and find a partner.
It's mostly heart warming, but also somewhat depressing. One of the older guys in the film lives in a rural area and doesn't make much money. So not only does he need to figure out how to peacock a little in the big city, but will need to find someone willing to have a more peasant lifestyle with him.
It was also interesting because a lot of the things the "dating expert" suggests are some of the same pick-up artist strategies we had here in the early 2000s. Like pushing and pulling, where you may compliment a girl and then follow it up with a qualifier that could be taken as an insult. The thought is, this way you can get across your attraction, but also demean the woman a little so that you look like a viable option.
Just real gross stuff.
Sally
Sally Ride, astronaut baddish extraordinaire. This is her life story.
I remember being in Young Astronauts in elementary school. Sally Ride was still the talk of the town. She was the positive beacon of NASA progressing past white, male astronauts and symbolized so much of what we could expect in the future.
Predators
Remember when there was a commercial or "How to Catch a Predator" every 10 minutes on broadcast television in the mid-2000s? Well, this looks behind the scenes of that and tries to pursue an answer to the question, "Was this really helping? Or did the entertainment value turn this into exploitation?"
It eventually takes a ride on YouTube copycats and what Chris Hayes is up to today.
How to Build a Library
What an uplifting movie. It fits with the festival, a community coming together in Kenya to turn a long abandoned library (once was a white's only library) into a modern and safe place for the community to come together.
Wachuka and Shiro are both incredibly passionate and funny. Just watching the behind the scenes of dealing with all the politics of not making someone feel snubbed in order to get things funded was worth the price of admission, but also seeing literally what goes into actually funding a library was interesting.
Deaf President Now
March, 1988. The first all deaf university (Gallaudet) is in the process of choosing their next president.
And yet again... a hearing president is chosen.
The students go into rage mode immediately. Protests break out, the school gets locked down, and rich peoples' dinners are ruined.
If not for this being a documentary, my notes would've said the villain of this tale is too much. You need to blunt the edges to make them seem realistic.
My favorite film of the festival. I was amazed by how much I understood of the signing by the main characters just based on how emotive they were. They were funny, they were brave, and they were right.
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