From the Real to the Reel
True/False Film Fest |
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wT/F - True False Zine |
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The popularity of documentary film in the past ten years has skyrocketed, and recent award-winning documentaries like Inside Job (2010), The Cove (2009), and Super Size Me (2004) are simultaneously entertaining audiences and investigating serious issues like the financial collapse, dolphin hunting, and the fast food industry––issues that in the past might have been covered exclusively in investigative journalism. What explains the public’s growing fascination with documentary? How is documentary film reacting to recent transformations in the media landscape? Is it filling a critical need that journalism is no longer willing or able to meet?
Join us in Columbia, Missouri, February 29-March 2 as a dynamic group of scholars, filmmakers, producers, and film critics engage in a series of thoughtful and energetic discussions about the intersections of documentary film and journalism and the implications for America’s media of the future. This conference Based on a True Story: The Intersection of Documentary Film and Journalism analyzes the intersection of nonfiction storytelling forms, advocacy in that storytelling, and the cultural and ethical implications of the convergence between journalism and documentary film.
An interdisciplinary group of scholars at the University of Missouri––sponsored by the Mizzou Advantage Program — has partnered with the True/False Film Festival to continue a tradition of light-hearted yet serious-minded discussion about documentary film. Conference attendees will spend two days engaging with some of the top thinkers, purveyors, and practitioners of documentary film. (The perfect warm-up to the ninth annual True/False Film Festival, March 1-4, 2012!)
The conference begins on Wednesday evening, February 29, with an intimate Q&A with a notable filmmaker. On Thursday, the discussion continues with four panels scheduled throughout the day, along with refreshment and lunch breaks to provide ample opportunity for interaction with the conference participants and attendees. We will end the conference on Friday morning with a final panel and lunch, sponsored by the Lee Hills Chair in Free Press Studies, as a transition into the weekend-long festival.
We hope you’ll join us for the conference and choose to stay on in Columbia for the True/False Film Festival, considered by many industry insiders as the best national documentary film festival.
