Cliff Froehlich, Executive Director of Cinema St. Louis, says in regards to documentary films, "Although some people continue to equate the word "documentary" with "boring," probably as a result of suffering through the dreary educational films once shown in schools, nonfiction films are among the most vibrant, entertaining and illuminating work now being produced. Docs certainly teach us about the world, giving us privileged glimpses of lives, issues and experiences that we'd never otherwise encounter, but they can also make us laugh, move us to tears or spur us to action.” Froehlich continues, “Because I program documentaries at the St. Louis International Film Festival, I have an obvious bias, but if I were to name my favorite films of the past decade - and I've seen more than several thousand in that time - I suspect that documentaries would dominate the list."
I attended the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri and was shocked to find that over 50,000 people attended the festival from virtually all over the world. Paul Sturtz and David Wilson, managers of the festival, say, "True/False happens slap-dab amidst the primary season. Befitting the word, colors around us intensify - blues get bluer, reds even redder. There's little room for nuance as candidates race to the extremes and create ideologically armored platforms from which to lob shells at one another. Among the casualties: the more subtle hues, tints, tones and shades that make up the human experience. We see True/False weekend as a time to explore far-flung points of connection and map the contours of our community. It's a weekend to stop campaigning and explore the secondary and tertiary colors. To go off the trail."
Sturtz and Wilson also had an article in their True/False festival book entitled “Neither/Nor” which is the festival's annual investigation of cinema which muddles the borders between fiction and documentary. It exists because history has largely ignored non fiction's rich tradition of experimentation and formal ingenuity. They said that this year the formidable critic, Nick Pinkerton asked them to consider an area of cinema that they have heretofore ignored: the Mondo movie, which is perhaps better known by its reductive moniker, the “shockumentary."
After being stimulated and enthralled by the magnitude and breadth of this Missouri cultural wonder, off I went to Palm Springs, California and saw advertisements for the up and coming Am Doc (American Documentary) Film Festival that took place earlier this year.
In the calendar of "The Guide," a section of the "Palm Springs Life Magazine" a description of the festival notes, "Not so long ago documentary film was the ugly stepsister of the big screen, but these days she dons whatever shoe wear she wants and tells cinematic princes to take a royal leap. Am Doc offerings are thought - provoking, compelling stories captured by independent minds only too happy to answer questions about what they saw, and how they crafted their vision."
And of course, St. Louis has many well known and award winning documentary film producers. Virginia Lee Hunter has reached international acclaim for her recent documentary entitled, "Carny, Americana on the Midway" which she travelled all over the country to make. She has been described as a reportage photographer. Her photographs are often referred to as social anthropological exploration of America's underbelly.
Hunter's works are character based and then we have award winning Bill Streeter whose works are history based. He was the director of "Bricks by Chance and Fortune" which aired on KETC, Nine Network recently, and he is currently coming out with a new documentary entitled "St. Louis Brews" which deals with the history of beer from past to present in our city.
And did you know that you can actually earn a graduate degree in documentary film making. Young Kelsey Rightnowar is about to do just that. There are programs in New York and even the University of Missouri offers a degree in Documentary Journalism.
As usual, our city and state are right on the pulse with all the latest movie trends.
Nancy Kranzberg has been involved in the arts community for more than thirty years on numerous arts related boards.