Marching through True/False

Levi Bedall, one of the three designers for the the art installation “Atmosphere,” stands still amongst the beams of light streaming through the plastic on Friday, March 2 on Ninth Street in downtown Columbia. “I feel like I’m in a space. That these things are real. That they are solid,” Bedall said.

TJ Muller strums cords intermittently during a break between songs on Saturday, March 3. The pair is based in St. Louis but performs traditional jazz on antique instruments at events like the True/False Film Fest.

Dancers come together in the street as New Creations Brass Band performs after the completion of the festival’s annual parade March March on Friday, March 3. The band is originally from New Orleans but traveled north to perform during the festival.

Cindy Scott, a local painter and artist, drags streaks of purple down from the top of the plywood canvas on Saturday At Wildy’s World. The plywood covers the majority of the art studio’s west wall and sits beside last year’s True/False Film Fest creation.

Heidi Allemann and Isaiah Davis-Stober move between crowds to sell homemade cookies to festival attendees throughout downtown Columbia. The pair are part of a group of local high school students and adults who call themselves “IceKeepers.” The group worked in Jalisco, Mexico, and is now planning what story they want to tell.

Phillip Neale stakes out the first spot in line on Sunday, March 4, outside the Blue Note. Neale, who waited for his wife to join him in line for “Our New President,” arrived outside the theater nearly an hour and a half before the Q was set to open. “If you want to be assured of getting a good Q, you have to be in line two hours or more,” Neale said.

March kicked off with True/False FilmFestival, a jam-packed weekend with more movies than I can list, food I know tastes great just walking down the street and more people filling the streets than even the busiest Saturday night. Every year Columbia is flooded with film lovers and makers for the film fest and while every year in Columbia, I have found one way or another to partake, this year I was able to see it up close and personal through man-on-the-street coverage with Megan Dollar. 

We paired up to cover as much as possible that True/False had to offer: from films and local and visiting art to musicians and fundraisers, Megan and I spent three full days photographing, interviewing and absorbing the high-energy atmosphere that the film festival brings to town. While the days were long and both physically and mentally exhausting, I left the newsroom each day feeling like more and more confident with my work and with my eye for finding interesting (non-cliché) stories that were made for both text and visuals. Working with Megan forced me to think not only about what makes a great photo but what you need to create and craft a great story. This heavier emphasis on finding pieces that work in both avenues was a new and extremely beneficial challenge for me that I am sure will continue into my work moving forward. 

Outside of the process of creating content throughout the weekend and beyond the challenge of finding unique and new ideas to complete, I felt that the weekend helped me to realize just how possible it is to find, report, document and publish stories in so short a time span. With the right mentality and approach, it is more than doable to publish at least one if not multiple pieces in a day. This fast paced environment helped me to really feel much more prepared for creating and pushing pieces out on a faster time clock than I have previously encountered and I know this will only help me to improve my writing and timelines in the future.