Cannes 2026: “The Station”

The Station, Yemeni-Scottish director Sara Ishaq’s thoughtful and humanity-filled fictional feature debut premiering in Critics’ Week at Cannes, begins with title cards that utilize the language of storytelling to set the framework for its world: “Once a land known for its abundance and powerful queens, Yemen was a bustling gateway between civilizations… But wars fueled […]

Cannes 2026: “Blaise,” “Flesh and Fuel”

The Cannes Film Festival annually overflows with an embarrassment of riches, but while many eyes turn to cinema’s most prestigious event (celebrating its 79th edition in the south of France this year) for its high profile premieres– ranging from the newest works from some of the most acclaimed auteurs working to much anticipated blockbusters– its […]

Cannes 2026: “Shana”

Shana (Eva Huault) has nothing going for her. Her toxic lover is in prison. She works a dead-end food service job, to the ridicule of her bougie family, who she shares a, at best, fraught relationship with due to past strife. Her grandmother just died, but she left her a ring, a striking gold bird-shaped […]

Review: “Daughters of the Forest”

Daughters of the Forest opens with lush images of verdant forests and mind-boggling close-ups of fungi, their movements slowed down to allow us to luxuriate in their strangeness as they puff out spores in clouds of smoke. They more closely resemble alien creatures than anything you’d expect to find on Earth, a sentiment that’s echoed […]

True/False 2026: “Barbara Forever,” “Broken English,” “True North”

Unconventional biographic documentaries and sharp use of archival footage are the hallmarks of the following three films that screened at the 2026 True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Missouri: Barbara Forever uses the personal archives of pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer to tell the story of her life and career; Broken English depicts a fictionalized archive […]

True/False 2026: “Phenomena,” “Time and Water,” “The Oldest Person in the World”

In keeping with the theme of the True/False Film Fest’s 23rd edition, You Are Here, many of the film’s screening in the annual celebration of non-fiction filmmaking in Columbia, Missouri dealt not just with our existence in physical spaces, but also our place in time. Many weave together both, from the vibes-heavy science doc Phenomena […]

True/False 2026: “First They Came for My College”

New College— the public liberal arts school located in Sarasota, Florida— sits on a picturesque campus right by the water. Its buildings are dominated by towering palm trees. Some of its students dedicate time to maintaining gardens that showcase the region’s native greenery. Its exterior beauty reflects its original mission; established in the early 1960s, […]

True/False 2026: “Pinball,” “What Comes from Sitting in Silence,” “To Hold a Mountain”

The True/False Film Fest— the esteemed non-fiction film festival held annually in Columbia, Missouri— always excels at elevating global perspectives that most Americans (let alone Midwesterners) aren’t exposed to. The following three films— the world premieres Pinball and What Comes From Sitting in Silence in addition to the recent Sundance premiere To Hold a Mountain— […]

True/False 2026: “A Place of Absence”

Halfway through her lyrical documentary A Place of Absence, director Marialuisa Ernst claims that ambiguous loss is the worst kind of suffering. The void your missing loved one leaves behind weighs you down. It’s a weight that only becomes heavier by the lack of answers or closure. But it’s the admirable women who push through […]

True/False 2026: “Landscapes of Memory”

Leah Galant’s slippery and sobering documentary Landscapes of Memory begins with two things: her father, and her pending move to Germany, where she intends to study Holocaust memory. Her dad, Allen, is the primary keeper of their family’s history; his parents— Galant’s grandparents— were Holocaust survivors, and few physical documents of their past remain. The […]