2026 True/False Film Fest Dispatch #1: ‘The Oldest Person in the World,’ ‘Broken English’
This time last year, I received an email about attending a mid-size film festival showcasing, celebrating the best of domestic and international nonfiction cinema. Though I was unable to attend the festivities last year, it fueled me to want to make the trip in 2026; therefore, when I got the email again to fly out to True/False Film Fest for a weekend of artistic discovery within all forms of powerful, moving, fascinating documentaries, as well as local music, art installations, and other creative events, my response was a resounding yes. Located in the college town of Columbia, Missouri, landing right in the middle of Kansas City and St. Louis, True/False Film Fest has been going on for the last twenty-three years, showcasing some of the year’s best, most talked about documentaries, as well as being a platform to shine a light on smaller films that have yet been picked up by a distributor and are still looking for their chance to make it to the big screen, or even picked up by a streamer. Emphasizing their goal, the festival and their leadership state that they want the festival “to forge a supportive, celebratory refuge for filmmakers and amplify the possibilities of creative nonfiction,” as well as be “an atmosphere of innovation and excitement, free of the heat and stress of the market,” and thus creating something that artists feel safe with and want to return to for many years to come.
My trip to the festival didn’t start out on the right foot, as a massive thunder storm with hours of heavy rain and vigorous lighting kept me from landing on time, forcing my arrival to be in the early morning of the opening day of the festival. It felt like an endless waiting game in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, as the flight kept being delayed eight times within a five-and-a-half-hour time span. Once I landed in Columbia, all the nerves of making it went away and it felt like an introduction like no other, as I walked to baggage claim, the music that was being played over the intercom on the way to baggage pickup was “Cornfield Chase,” a track from Hans Zimmer’s score from Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. In a humorous sign from the movie gods, I chuckled after my exhausting odyssey to get to the Columbia, but that wasn’t the last surprise because as my bag started to make its way into my possession, the fight song for the University of Missouri started to play at a volume level that at 2:30 am in the morning could be considered a polite noise complaint. It was a quick reminder that we are in the midst of a college town for this festival, one that embraces this artistic weekend while also continuing to live on as the film screenings are taking place. After a much needed, extensive session of sleep, and preparation for a busy weekend of seeing films, I made my way down to the pass pick up about three blocks away from The Broadway Hotel, located in the heart of downtown Columbia. From the window of my room, you could see volunteers already setting things up at various locations throughout the town, but it was another thing once you made your way to the ground level.
Banners, posters, flyers, signs, all displayed with the signature red, white and black logo of True/False, with hundreds of people walking around, looking to get their passes to make their way to their first screens in the chilly, overcast weather of early March in Missouri. My journey to pick up my pass was fairly easy (just follow the large group of people who are asking other people “hey, where did you guys get your passes?”), and as I stood in line, I couldn’t help but overhear every conversation being had, filled with excitement, friends reuniting for another year of True/False (one pair told me this is their tenth year doing this; a highlight of their year), as well as a dozen or so filmmakers waiting in line, talking about their creative process with those curious to lend an ear to their stories, shared their journey of making their films and how grateful they were to be showcasing their film alongside the rest of the incredible lineup. We were all in a line, crammed together, thrilled at getting the 2026 True/False Film Fest started.
Once my badge was secured, it was time to see the first film of the schedule; a festival schedule that’s showcasing 61 total films across seven venues over the weekend, comprising 36 feature films, 25 short films, and two repertory films. My first stop was to The Blue Note, a live music venue that has been transformed into a theater for the festival weekend. Think of your favorite college town dive bar, concert hall being converted into a place for cinema where the bar (upstairs and downstairs) are open, with seating available in both locations, including side tables in the balcony (which were excellent not only for the views of the screen, but for taking notes, something this critic does for every film). While grabbing a Diet Coke and some Peanut M&Ms (my go to theater snack combo), I watched the pre-show entertainment performed by Soumir, an emerging local artist who is a one-person dance band armed with a keytar and a drum machine, and recently voted St. Louis Magazine’s best new music artist of 2025. Her music was a mixture of funk, disco, pop, electronic dance, and was the right vibe to start off the festivities. I realized after this screening that at True/False, every pre-show has an artist performing music instead of playing a boring track list of classic rock songs, and a collection hat is passed around to support the up-and-coming talent. It’s a genius idea that everyone is really into, as the crowd was dancing just seconds before the house lights went down and the first screening started, Sam Green’s The Oldest Person in the World.
In his latest documentary, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green (2003’s The Weather Underground) dives deep into a lifelong fascination he’s had with the Guinness World Record for the Oldest Living Person on Earth. Starting this project on July 7, 2015, Green spans the lives of half a dozen elderly people from across the world that are either the oldest or second oldest person alive on the planet. In his conversations with individuals from the United States, Italy, the UK, Japan, the Caribbean, and more, he asks them questions about what they think the meaning of life is, and what the secret is to living such a long, rich life. But as simple and basic as those questions are, they tap into the soul of the subject being asked very differently, if even at all given that some of the people he is talking to are 115 to 117 years old, and it requires a lot of energy to function at such an advanced age. His conversational, relaxed interview and filmmaking style are blended naturally with the various stories found within the film, like the story of Susannah Mushatt Jones, one of the last living Americans born in the 1800s, who was the third child and oldest daughter of eleven children, had no children, but took care of mostly every niece and nephew she had by paying for their college on a next to nothing salary. Her story, alongside the sequence involving Emma Morano, an Italian woman who is the fourth oldest European ever, are highlights of some of the beautiful stories found within lives of those who are slowly coming to a close. There is a particularly moving sequence when Morano, who only speaks Italian, sits with Green, who can only speak English, and they just stare at each other, no words, just holding each other’s hand; acknowledging each other spiritually in a moment of quiet, human beauty.
Where the film takes a turn away from these fascinating subjects of the documentary, and focuses on Green’s own place in the world, wrestling with his age, his relationships with his Mom and wife, thinking back to the loss of his brother, and having his son within the time of working on this project, it feels like this important, personal time in his life is clashing with the idea he is fascinating with. Both parts are enjoyable to watch, and even profound at times (as someone in their mid-thirties, the part where Green mentions he doesn’t want to live without his 92-year-old mother made me breakdown at just the mire thought of losing those close to me), but as a whole film, there is a hesitation to say it works one hundred percent, especially the final moments of the film where Green talks about this project existing long after he’s passed away, even hinting at passing it down to his son. While a rather tongue and cheek way to close this chapter of his life, The Oldest Person in the World should’ve hit with more of an emotional gut punch to stick Green’s multigenerational concept, yet he just missed the mark of making something that could’ve stood out over time. (Grade: B-)
Up next was Broken English, directed by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, which is a documentary following the sex decades within the career of singer, actress and artist, Marianne Faithfull. Know by most as Mick Jagger’s girlfriend in the 1960s (a title given to her by the nasty British press), Forsyth and Pollard examine the life of one of the most underrated artists of her time, but tell her story in a rather inventive, unconventional way, as they create a fictional bureaucracy named the Ministry of Not Forgetting, whose methods are to collect memories, stories, songs, testimony from Faithfull and others who’ve known her over the course of her life, in an attempt to create something an portrait of someone who is meant to last throughout the sands of time. This Ministry is ruled by the Overseer (Tilda Swinton) and her associate, the Record Keeper (George MacKay), and they run a tight, information based schedule, with a sole focus on Faithfull and her life as a folk singer turned pop star, her lyrical influence on Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, her work in films as well as her appearance in D. A Pennebaker’s documentary Don’t Look Back, where we see footage of her receiving a poem from Dylan, and her being introduced to poet Allen Ginsberg. As we learn about her career, we learn about her three marriages, the loss of her only child at a young age, the multiple comebacks in her career, and her fight with COVID that resulted in her being in a coma, and miraculously coming out alive when all had counted her out.
But that’s the thing about Faithfull, just when everyone counted her out, she reinvented herself, creating a new version of the artist people fell in love with when hearing her breakout hit “As Tears Go By” decades before. In Broken English, we hear testimonials from Keith Richards, Dylan, Warren Ellis, Suki Waterhouse, as well as witness tribute performances from Nick Cave, Beth Orton and Courtney Love linked together within Faithfull’s unpolished, honest testimony. Faithfull, who was still recovering from her illnesses, spends the majority of the film being interviewed by MacKay’s Record Keeper, in some of the most easy, smooth, familiar conversations you’ll ever hear on screen. It’s as if over time, the Record Keeper persona blends with MacKay as a person, and it becomes a talk between someone who deeply respects Faithfull and her work, making their time together feel rather special than just a standard Q&A. Mix in Swinton’s Overseer, whose own love and admiration for Faithfull is apparent on screen, with glowing praise stated throughout the runtime, it’s a blend of fiction in order to tell facts and reality to dive into the soul of an unsung legend that will leave you in complete awe over the construction of this piece of cinema, and how the filmmakers, with the consent of Faithfull, was able to tell her story. All the credit in the world goes to Forsyth and Pollard, for coming up with this incredible concept to tell Faithfull’s story, and in doing so, creating one of the most original, candid, bold bio-documentaries made in a long time, as well as this being one of the best documentaries of the decade so far. Bold cinematic ideas and filmmaking compliment a one of a kind artist to create something truly special. (Grade: A)
These reviews are from the 2026 True/False Film Festival.
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2026 True/False Film Fest Dispatch #1: ‘The Oldest Person in the World,’ ‘Broken English’ 
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