Pinball
The Columbia, Missouri-based True/False Film Festival kicks off its 23rd edition, one that boasts a particularly exciting lineup of non-fiction films, musical performances, and coinciding art installations.
Running from March 5–8, the theme for the 2026 program is “You Are Here,” chosen by visiting artistic director Yance Ford. The director of acclaimed docs Strong Island (2017) and Power (2024) is intimately familiar with the politics of place: Nominated for an Academy Award, Strong Island documents the racially-motivated killing of Ford’s brother in Long Island; more broadly, Power charts the creation of modern American policing.
Both films have screened at previous editions of True/False, which typically curates a lineup that is less premiere-focused than it is demonstrative of the most exciting (and, at times, boundary-blurring) non-fiction films making rounds on the international festival circuit. Even so, there are a handful of features making their world premiere in the college town of Columbia, aptly home to the University of Missouri and its renowned Murray Center for Documentary Journalism.
While the films on offer are always top priority, there are a few truly spectacular music showcases featuring amazing acts old and new. On Friday night, the legendary Bronx-birthed dance punk outfit ESG will perform funky tunes (for those unaware of the band’s immense cultural footprint, their song “U.F.O.” is one of the most-sampled of all-time, including by fellow New Yorker The Notorious B.I.G.)
Meanwhile, Saturday’s Sanctuary Showcase will take place inside the Firestone Baars Chapel, which shares a designer with St. Louis Arch architect Eero Saarinen. Philly-based indie rockers @ (pronounced “at”) will perform their hypnotizing harmonies (if you needed a buzzier reason to check them out, they opened for a secret Cameron Winter set in Ridgewood, Queens, earlier this year).
Circling back to the films, below are four world premieres (and one North American) that are worth checking out, whether you’re on the ground at this epicenter for non-fiction fanatics or are just keeping your eyes peeled for these films’ future festival stops.
Remake
His first feature in 14 years, legendary autobiographical documentarian Ross McElwee’s Remake finally presents to U.S. audiences after its Venice debut back in September. “You don’t need to have watched Ross McElwee’s films over the years in order to be moved by Remake, in which his ongoing saga of art and life collides in freshly shattering ways with the unlikely prospect of a Hollywood deal and the unthinkable death of his son Adrian,” wrote contributor Nicolas Rapold in his intro for his Q&A with McElwee on the Lido. “But if you have been following along (or catching up) with his journey from Sherman’s March through to Photographic Memory, the personal loss can all feel that much more poignant, as if you know him personally.”
Phenomena
“I found a way to look into the universe,” says Australian filmmaker Josef Gatti at the start of his feature debut, which he describes as a “trippy, psychedelic musical odyssey” through 10 science experiments that result in molecular artistry. Though the images on screen can seem beyond belief—the intricacies of light, gravity, and even nuclear energy result in at times subatomic visual splendor—Gatti is passionate about capturing truly organic images. “I’m so uninterested in using AI in my work,” he told me in a recent interview. “I was really trying to look at nature and use real cinematography and practical techniques to create the craziest images you could possibly imagine.” Suffice to say, he succeeds.
Pinball
Featured on our 25 New Faces of Film list in 2024, producer Bryn Silverman and director Naveen Chaubal return to the festival with their feature Pinball, just one year after they presented Silverman’s autobiographical short Expression of Illness about her thyroid cancer diagnosis. Their subject now is 19-year-old Yosef, who with his family received asylum in Louisville after fleeing Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003. The teen, a skilled soccer player, confronts cultural chasms that are exacerbated when his sister decides to move to Egypt, where the family temporarily resided before moving to the States. Expanded from a delightfully experimental short of the same name—an extended reverie in which Yosef yearns to competitively race school buses—it appears that Chaubal and Silverman are taking a more naturalistic approach here. Then again, appearances can be deceiving, particularly at True/False.
How to Clean a House in Ten Easy Steps
Carolina González Valencia’s debut feature feels particularly potent amid our current political climate. Confronting the prospect of being separated from her mother Beatriz, a Latin American domestic worker who has long resided in the U.S. and is the family’s sole breadwinner, Valencia copes by creating a work of fiction that’s rooted in truth. Elements of docu-fiction, dance and quotidian routines culminate in a story that is as personal for Valencia as it is her and Beatriz’s overarching community. The result is an attempt to disrupt preconceived notions about labor, immigration and belonging by way of sparking creative joy.
Who Moves America
The employees of UPS, the world’s largest package delivery company, also make up the country’s largest collective bargaining agreement. With their contract set to expire in 2023, the Teamsters advocate for USP to radically improve working conditions—or face the prospect of 340,000 workers walking off the job and halting millions of packages across 200 countries and territories. Director Yael Bridge follows several UPS employees from around the country amid the daunting tasks of remaining steadfast as a collective, particularly when they must decide whether to accept the terms of their new contract or vote to go on strike.
