True/False 2016

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One might not expect much from a film festival right in the dead center of America's Heartland, but for thirteen years, True/False has been changing the way to think about the micro-film festival as well as the form of cinema in major ways. In this dispatch from Columbia, Missouri, Peter sits with critics Sam Adams, Tim Grierson, and (eventually) Scott Tobias to look at how the documentary-oriented festival puts aesthetics into the conversation while remaining politically engaged. While the subjects can be galvanizing—the US prison system, delinquent teenage girls in Tehran, Chinese miners, the fall of Iraq—the films continually break the mold for how one thinks about the format by exploring the relationship between the filmmaker and their subject. Plus, a discussion about Concerned Student 1950, a student-made documentary addressing the issues of the University of Missouri protests in 2015, and what its premiere could mean for the future of the festival.

0:00-2:50 Opening
2:50-8:00 Concerned Student 1950

8:00-49:35 True/False Favorites

50:47-54:16 Sponsorship Section
55:05-1:19:05 True/False Favorite Scenes

1:19:08-1:20:47 Close

Read more about True/False at their website.

Follow Our Guests on Twitter: Sam Adams, Tim Grierson, and Scott Tobias.

Episode #38 - Sam Adams (The Long Goodbye)

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"You have to follow your star for what's exciting or offensive to you about this movie...writing about what interests you the most produces the best criticism."

Sam Adams may not be in the center of the criticism landscape from his home in Philadelphia, but his presence at the editor for the Criticwire blog has made his dialectic voice a reasoned and fascinating one in a world of polemics. In this latest episode, Peter sits down with Sam to talk about his first interest in criticism through his desire to talk through a film, his participation in the experimental Flaherty seminar, and his thoughts on the strange world of television criticism and its constant evolution. Finally, the two work through Robert Altman's 1973 hazy noir The Long Goodbye and consider how the director's comedic take on the Chandler hero with Elliot Gould might in some ways be more noir than most revisionist works.

0:00-1:25 Opening 

2:46-9:13 Establishing Shots - Mann Noirs / Donations

9:59-1:15:19 Deep Focus - Sam Adams

1:16:45-1:42:42 Double Exposure - The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman)

1:42:45-1:44:40 Close / Outtake

Read Sam Adams at Criticwire, The Dissolve, The AV Club, and The Philadelphia City Paper.
Follow Sam on Twitter.