It is a reflection that brings this tiny Italian Alps village together.  Director David Christensen gives us a modern fairy tale without the castle, glitter or arch-nemesis.

For 83 days each year, the town of Viganella is in shadow.  In the winter months the sun is too low to peak up over the mountains and cast its rays over Viganella, so the village’s inhabitants hibernate.  The social importance that a community needs in order to grow is extinguished so to speak, since there is no sun to shine down on the valley floor.

Shared by DC Hot Commodities

DC Hot Commodities participated in the True/False to DJ the @ction party and the Saturday night after party last week.

DC Hot Commodities was born on a tropical Miami night one new year’s eve, in response to a dance-off challenge to which we ended up shaking an audio cassette and our booties. We have been traveling, laughing, and djing ever since. Four of us came to True/False to DJ the @ction party and the Saturday night after party – we didn’t know what to expect, but we knew we would show Columbia, MO a good time. Mission accomplished! And then some! Our experience at True/False was amazing and inspiring.

Both parties were a great success from our eyes, with 1) sweat and 2) abundance of original dance moves as important measures. Being with lots of people boogying, hearing new musical styles, and respecting each other are what make DJing worthwhile for us, and True/False turned it. As you know if you were at the party, our repertoire includes music from Kenya, Baltimore, Peru, New Orleans, Pakistan, and other places near and far, pumping out jamz like electro, disco, reggaeton, house, salsa, bhangra, dance hall, soul, hip-hop, high life, cumbia, and much more. We love dancing to the music that we DJ, and we were so happy that True/False-goers felt the same way! For us, sincere djing is a collaborative exercise along with the audience, and together we all made some great parties happen.

Video by Simin Wang/Missourian

True/False Film Fest 2010 concluded with crowds singing and dancing to tunes played by bands such as The Toughcats and Rum Drum Ramblers at the Missouri Theatre Sunday night.

David Wilson, co-founder and co-director of the festival was satisfied with T/F this year. He said, “I feel fantastic. There were lots of problem, like the weather, but the overall was good.”

Tim Wahl, a pioneer scientist from St.Louis, drove back to attend T/F. “Catching T/F is a break from my job,” he said. “I like the people. They don’t push a lot, and everyone’s friendly. I love to come back.”

Wahl went to school at MU’s College of Arts and Science. He hopes that T/F 2011 will not change too much, or get too popular such that he would not be able to get tickets to the movie.

Wilson said that he does not foresee such a thing happening next year. He said, “There will always be tickets.”

T/F volunteer Mike Denehy rides his ostrich Edgar at T/F the entire night. He likes the wide variety of music at T/F each year. Photo by Simin Wang/Missourian

Mike Denehy, a volunteer who rode an ostrich called Edgar, wanted T/F to stay this way. “I love the wide variety of music at T/F,” he said. “I want most of the same thing, and another good year for the next T/F.”

Shared by Zac Early, who watched 12 films over the 4-day film festival. The Missourian is featuring reader contributions from True/False. If you’d like to submit your photos, stories or reviews, send them to submissions@mymissourian.com.

Taken by Zac Early before the screening of The Red Chapel

Bright and early Sunday morning, we made our way to Stephens College’s Firestone-Baars Chapel for a screening of the Danish film “The Red Chapel,” fittingly enough. As melodies of Noah Earle serenaded the congregation of True/False faithful, I was fixated on the uniformity of the squared pews radiating from the stage. The high backs of the seats made us sit at attention as we zeroed in on the target-like True/False logo behind Mr. Earle.

Shared by Christa Rooks, an advanced magazine writing student at MU. The Missourian is featuring reader contributions from True/False. If you’d like to submit your photos, stories or reviews, send them to submissions@mymissourian.com.

There’s something about happy-go-lucky pop music and video clips from the late 1950s and early 1960s that makes you feel… disturbed. Disquieted. At least, that’s how it feels when Adam Curtis combines these elements in his newest film, “It Felt Like A Kiss.”

So what do you do when the American dream turns into a nightmare? This is what Curtis explores in a film that investigates the unraveling edges of American dominance in the time period just before hippies came onto the scene. On the outside, everyone seems happy, and the music is light and happy, too, so why is there an accumulating sense of dread?

Photos by Simin Wang/Missourian

The audience of "Last Train Home" feasts on food provided by Addison's.

The audience who attended the closing night film “Last Train Home” Sunday evening enjoyed a feast at the Missouri Theatre by Addison’s.

Frank Gonzales, a real estate investor, was a first-timer at True/False Film Fest. He took his 9-year-old son, Damian Gonzales, here to learn more about film. Damian has been making, producing and editing his own films since he was seven, and he has won several awards, such as SATO 48.

“HolyWars” is the story of two men who represent two very different walks of life.

We are first introduced to Khalid Kelly, an Irish-born convert to Islam. Kelly read the Koran during a stint in prison, and the faith becomes his lifestyle.

His mission is to live a fundamental and conservative Muslim lifestyle and to seek an Islamic state.

His counter-character in the film is Aaron Taylor, an evangelical Christian missionary. Born in what he refers to as the Bible Belt, Taylor’s goal is to evangelize Muslims around the world, to be a “soldier for Christ.”

Just outside Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro is Jardim Gramacho, the largest landfill in the world, where catadores, or pickers, climb through overwhelming heaps of rubble to find recyclable materials to sell.

In Lucy Walker’s Waste Land, Walker and Brazilian contemporary artist Vik Muniz simultaneously expose the lives of the pickers through their own very different, but equally effective, art forms.

Let’s be honest here. Documentaries can sometimes be incredibly boring.

Utopia, though,  wasn’t a film so much as a live presentation. A live documentary, as they called it.

Filmmaker Sam Green was in the theater while we watched, narrating as the series of images and movie clips played on the screen behind him.

Short documentary films are like short punchy sentences. They are bold and provocative. When shown in series, the films can explore a theme from a variety of perspectives. Someone To Watch Over is an 80 minute compilation of six films that deals with humanity’s dependence in family.