JGA: T/F

must pack!

This is one of those blog posts that acts like it’s about one thing but is actually about something totally different. I’m acting like it's a post about film, but it’s actually about how cool the woman I married is. (Skip four paragraphs to get right to the evidence of coolness.)

I’m teaching a film course in the fall. It’s called “Literature and Cinema.” It’s about “adaptation”—the process of translating a verbal narrative (i.e., a short story or a novel) into a visual narrative one (i.e., a movie). I’m excited about the course. I have a million ideas about which films to include, and I haven’t taught film in a couple of years.

When I last taught film, I lived in Columbia, MO, home of the Mizzou Tigers, sure. But it’s also home of the True/False film festival. It’s like the Sundance for documentary filmmakers (which I am not) and documentary lovers (which I am). I always required my film students to attend that festival. They always complained before they went and then thanked me afterward. The experience of being outside of the undergraduate comfort zone always proved fruitful.

And the T/F has consistently awesome films. It’s kind of a bellwether festival—only once the past five years has T/F not screened the film the later, or in the case of this year, already, went on to win the Oscar for best documentary.

But the films are only half the fun. The musical acts that play before the films and the droves of non-midwesterners walking around downtown Columbia is the other half. The third half of fun (?) is the Herculean task of actually attending 10+ movies in 2+ days. The films’ directors are always present at the films, and they answer questions after, which is pretty cool.

And I'm lucky. My birthday falls during T/F season. This year, I totally scored: