Requiem for a Tribe

Begun in 2004, the 2025 True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, offered its always impressive international selection of documentaries championing (per the T/F mission) “the challenge of interpreting reality on screen with playfulness, sensitivity, discipline, and daring imagination.” This year’s 30 new features and 24 shorts represented an educational, inspirational, and entertaining treasure trove of international films anchored in historical and personal experiences. A bonus of the True/False Festival is the attendance of directors and/or producers and sometimes subjects, with post-screening Q&As that add background information and update the films’ content. Exploration of the past emerged as a significant theme, perhaps unsurprisingly given the world’s varied crises. Throughout analytical, extraordinary stories, directors consistently emphasized the critical importance of informing the present by incorporating lessons and insights from previously challenging as well as uplifting events.