Unsurprisingly, my fourth (and Audrey’s third) True/False Film Festival lived up to its growing reputation as one of the best documentary festivals in the country by delivering great films, new friends, engaged conversations and rousing parties. We had a blast. As always, you can see all my photos in a Flickr set here.

Some highlights:

My favorite film was Big River Man, a film I didn’t even know was in production when I blogged about it’s subject, extreme distance swimmer Martin Strel last year. I wish the trailer was up online, but alas. You’ll have to do with my over-used one word description for things I love: amazing!

A closer runner-up for me was We Live in Public the new film from Dig! director Ondi Timoner that follows the media experimentation of early Internet entrepreneur and Pesudo.com founder Josh Harris.

It was really cool to meet both Josh and Ondi at the fest and get to talk about film and the future of online video – a subject clearly close to my heart.

Other excellent films we saw and loved: Pressure Cooker (about a Philadelphia high school’s culinary class and it’s extraordinary teacher), No Impact Man (about a NYC family who famously choose to go as no-impact as possible for one year), Over the Hills and Far Away (about a Texas family who’s quest for healing of their Autistic child takes them on a spiritual quest to Mongolia).

Last but not least, how could I not mention how cool it was to get treated to a short set from avant-garde legends Pelt before just about every screening! Nothing like a little Buddha Machine and gong quartet to pep you up for a great film experience.

Audrey and I spent the weekend in good ol’ Columbia, Missouri to hole up in a dark theater and watch excellent indie documentaries. It was my third (and her second) time to the fest in their five-year history. We hope to be there every year until their twenty-fifth and beyond! It’s truly one of the best doc festivals in the country – relaxed vibe, great parties, wonderful films all held in a super rad town. If you’d like to know more about True/False, check out this great podcast interview with my friends and festival founders Paul Sturtz and David Wilson on Joel Heller’s blog “Docs that Inspire“.

Some of the highlight films for me were Joy Division, the new documentary hot on the heals of the fantastic biopic Control that came out in theaters late last year – The Order of Myths, a subtle story about race and the Mardi Gras traditions in Mobile, Alabama – and Gonzo, the Alex Gibney portrait of Hunter S. Thompson.

Echoes of Home, though, was by far my favorite film of the festival. It’s the story of a few musicians who are pushing the art of yodeling to new and powerful forms, but also reaching back into the history of this ancient skill. One of those kinds of movies that makes you tear up because it’s so beautiful. Okay, at least I did.

We saw some old friends and made some new ones, too. Like seeing our old buddy Chris here sitting and rappin’ with ramblin’ musician ‘Gramps’ on 10th Street.

True/False also does a crazy parade every year:

And those folks sure know how to throw a jammin’ party: