True/False Film Festival 2026
The True/False Film Fest is a renowned four-day documentary festival held annually in early March in Columbia, Missouri, featuring over 100 screenings of international non-fiction films, plus live music and art installations. Founded in 2004, it transforms downtown Columbia into a utopia for filmmakers and fans, often showcasing films from Sundance or Toronto. Art is the heartbeat of the True/False experience, transforming our city into a living gallery. Each year’s program is a tribute to both their foundations and their evolution, with invitations to artists who have deep roots in the festival.
Shape/Play features large-scale zoetropes responding to True/False’s 2026 theme, You Are Here: Showing Up Is the Story, by framing arrival as an embodied act. Each piece features a color wheel at its core, a symbol of seeing, attention, and perception, surrounded by looping optical illusions inspired by 1960s Op Art. The animations do not exist on their own; they only come to life when a participant sets them in motion. In an era shaped by digital distance and passive consumption, the work insists on physical engagement. They reward curiosity and participation, transforming the act of showing up into a collaborative experience between object and observer. The viewer becomes the missing frame, completing the work through their presence.
Camp True/False Workshop
Camp True/False is an essential festival program led by the year-round Community Partnerships and Education Team. As a mission-driven arts organization, True/False provides accessible educational opportunities through cinema, and this free program, focused on documentary filmmaking and media literacy, has been a successful and impactful approach. Camp True/False is a vital tool for students across Missouri that not only encourages students to explore careers within the arts, but inspires the participants, especially those less accustomed to seeing themselves represented in media, to see themselves as capable storytellers whose voices and contributions have value.
The camp takes place Friday through Sunday of the festival weekend for high school students. Students follow a thoughtfully curated path through the festival, and beyond watching films, they have access to filmmakers, opportunities to make media art through workshops, establish lifelong connections with other student storytellers, and engage deeply on topics of media literacy.
As an installation artist at the festival, I was invited to give a workshop involving the creation of zoetropes, a pre-film animation device that creates the illusion of motion by showing a sequence of drawings through narrow vertical slits while spinning. Before beginning the construction, students created “human zoetropes” in small groups to understand the sequence of looping, moving images. They then utilized templates that I had precut and constructed the frame of their zoetrope. Then, they used prompt cards I created, linked below, to discuss with their groups what content would be shown in their animation. The presentation for the day has been linked below as well.
