Stronger Than Fiction 2019
These fourteen films are the work of graduate and undergraduate students in the Documentary Journalism Program at the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism. They are the culmination of two years of work fulfilling the requirements for their degrees.
Starting with just a sketch of an idea, these filmmakers pitched their concept, honed it through nearly a year of pre-production, production and post-production to deliver the films you see here.
This is the third annual Stronger Than Fiction Film Festival and it exhibits the maturing nature of the films the students have chosen to do. They range from serious examinations of the country’s racist past to personal tales of heartbreak to the meaning of love and family.
Special thanks this year goes to Andrea Meditch, Dana Merwin and Farihah Zaman for their guidance at the beginning of this project during our annual pitch forum.
We give our students a great deal of freedom to pursue the subject matter for which they feel the most passion. We believe that passion is evident throughout these film and and we hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoyed guiding the students in making them.
-Robert Greene, Filmmaker-in-Chief
-Stacey Woelfel, Director
Festival Jury
Eric Hynes is a New York-based curator, journalist, and film critic. He is Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York, overseeing programs such as the annual First Look film festival celebrating innovative works in the cinematic arts, and the ongoing New Adventures in Nonfiction series. He writes a column on the art of nonfiction, “Make It Real,” for Film Comment Magazine, and other outlets have included the New York Times, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Slate, the Village Voice, Sight & Sound and Reverse Shot, where he’s a staff writer and host of the “Reverse Shot Talkies” video interview series. Starting in January 2018, he and collaborators Jeff Reichert and Damon Smith launched Room H.264, an iterative, ongoing 21st century answer to Wim Wenders' Room 666, with contemporary filmmakers contemplating and confronting the future of film.
Sandi Tan published a zine called The Exploding Cat in her native Singapore at 16 and at 22 became the film critic at Singapore’s largest daily newspaper. She threw that away to run off to film school at Columbia University. Her short films have played at the New York Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, and 100 other festivals. Her novel The Black Isle has been translated into Dutch, Turkish and Polish. Her feature documentary Shirkers won her the Directing Prize (World Cinema Documentary) at Sundance 2018 and was a Spirit, Gotham and Peabody nominee for Best Documentary. Shirkers is now playing globally as a Netflix Original Documentary.
Alissa Wilkinson is a senior culture reporter and critic at Vox.com, where she writes about film, TV, and culture, often where they intersect with media, religion, and rhetoric. She is also an associate professor of English and humanities at The King's College in New York City, where since 2009 she has taught courses on criticism, cinema studies, literature, and cultural theory. Wilkinson is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics, and the WGA East, and was an inaugural writing fellow with the Sundance Institute’s Art of Nonfiction initiative. She’s served on juries at the Sundance Film Festival, DOC NYC, Sheffield Doc/Fest, the Hamptons International Film Festival, and others, and selection committees for groups including the Gotham Awards and the Sundance Documentary Film Program.
Films
37-64-97
dir. Bailey Synclaire
An archival documentary about the multigenerational relationship between three women—including the one who raised the filmmaker. Dorothy was a single mother to Lori back in the ‘70s. When Lori was little, she raised herself as her mother struggled with alcoholism. To keep her life on track, Dorothy moves in her daughter and begins the process of rehabilitation. Dorothy helps raise her grandchildren until her death. To keep the memories of the family alive, Dorothy recorded everything while the children’s mother was at work. With a video camera always in hand, she narrates the filmmaker’s entire childhood.
$360
dir. Matt Swing
A few weeks after finishing parole, Antonio Brison returns to the spot that changed his life forever. Now an actor and performer, he transfers the skills that he uses on stage to tell a story that hits closer to home: his own. Pairing Antonio’s natural storytelling ability with emotionally provocative cinematography, this film leaves no room for the viewer to draw conclusions from anything else other than the words and emotions that Antonio presents.
All These Marks
dir. Grace Noteboom
All These Marks is about choices, unexpected regret and grappling with an identity that no longer fits. In a tiny tattoo shop in Springfield, Missouri, men with hate tattoos confront the choices of their pasts as they attempt to make a better life for themselves and the people they love. The film is a look at the uncomfortable—but honest—question of who gets a hate tattoo and why they want it gone now.
Grandes Decisiones
dir. Larissa Babiak
In an impoverished region of southwest Guatemala, caring, enthusiastic educator Nimsy Ramos leads an innovative high school sex education program. Set against a backdrop of high teen pregnancy rates in the community, Nimsy teaches lessons focusing on goals and dreams, relationships and romance, abstinence, contraception and sexually transmitted infections. With an observational, emotional and character-focused style, Grandes Decisiones presents the program as a hopeful step toward empowering teens in the community to address their futures.
Holy Fire
dir. Sam Roth
When George Scott, a military veteran and Lutheran pastor in rural central Pennsylvania, took a leave of absence from his congregation to run a competitive race for U.S. Congress in 2018, he energized the Democratic base while creating an uncertain future for his congregation. Including everything from a controversial gun ad to a sudden spike in national attention, Holy Fire roots us firmly at the center of the campaign drama as the outcomes of George’s decision manifest on Election Day.
HorseGirl
dir. Olivia Jacobson
Courtney Sims has always had a soft spot for troubled horses, so working at a horse rescue ranch is a dream come true. Courtney spends her days retraining abused and abandoned horses to find them their forever homes. Her job is incredibly demanding and when her career is threatened, Courtney will have to make a serious choice: stay in the world she loves or move on and find a new dream.
Jack (and Joe)
dir. Jane Arnot
Jack (and Joe) is an intimate look at the life of Jack through the lens of his twin brother. Jack and Joe are 25. Jack has a non-verbal form of autism. Joe moved away, graduated from college and left Jack behind. As Joe watches the footage of his twin, he reflects on their relationship. How can Jack grow as a person while being stuck at home and what does it feel like to have a twin with whom you can never actually converse? These are thoughts that prompt Joe to narrate the observational footage and provide clarity for the image of his brother.
The Lost Cause
dir. Devine Utley
As one of the 11 states to secede from the Union during the Civil War, North Carolina is still grappling with its problematic history. With more than 100 monuments to the Confederacy across the state, lawmakers in Raleigh are forced to reckon with their own Confederate memorials on the State Capitol grounds. The Lost Cause follows the debate regarding the decision to relocate the monuments while exploring historic Raleigh and its ties to the war.
Mothers & Brothers
dir. Emily Dunn
A young filmmaker undergoes the process of genetic carrier testing for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a degenerative disease carried by women that only manifests itself in their male children. For carriers, there is a 50 percent chance a son will develop the disease, and a 50 percent chance a daughter will also be a carrier. From attempting to make sense of a family’s past, to tackling the future as a young woman, this intimate film delves deep into the promises and threats of motherhood as shaped by genetic disease.
Native and American
dir. Taylor Hensel
The prosperity of America has been the antithesis of Native American progress. As the philosophical and cultural rift between indigenous and American ways of life widen, individuals who are both Native and American face a jarring juxtaposition. Native and American follows Holly Spaude as she confronts her mixed heritage and seeks to define her identity within her tribal community. While navigating her tribe’s blood quantum standard and working to help preserve the endangered Potawatomi language, Holly has come to know her purpose.
Qualm & Quietus
dir. Phoebe Mussman
Part character study, part essay film, Qualm & Quietus challenges the anxiety with which we view death. The documentary follows Kerry Lynn, a woman who just stepped down from leading a pagan sanctuary. Death has followed Kerry Lynn throughout life, leading her to form a relationship with Hekate: the Titan goddess of the underworld and all things in transition. In facing her mortality with grace and candor, Kerry Lynn allows viewers to see the perfection of impermanence for themselves.
Saved One
dir. Yuxuan Jia
While giant pandas play in front of the live webcams to the delight of many around the world, other animals are facing a survival crisis with no one watching. Humans have a bias toward cute, fluffy and charismatic animals, but Earth has a living population made up of more than just cute faces. This documentary addresses how humans can help endangered animals and what we can learn from the giant panda's successful PR campaign.
That One Time I Went Hunting with Dad
dir. Connor Laughlin
Telling a story of fatherhood, a young college student seeks to grow closer with his father while they both deal with personal loss. He follows in the footsteps of his father and grandfathers to learn what has kept duck hunting in their family for more than 50 years. The two grow closer as they spend a month hunting together, revealing what it means for them to be father and son.
Two Petty Criminals, Not Worth Naming
dir. Davis McCondichie
This film intends to show the audience who writes our history. By exploring images and stories of the town of Fayetteville, Georgia, the filmmaker attempts to intercede in the past and find what aspects of this small southern town go undiscussed. By focusing the narrative on the historic courthouse firebombing of 1982, the film finds a way to create its own authorship on the past—and possibly the future. The film explores themes of heritage, gatekeeping and above all else, who gets to tell the stories we hold onto for the years to come.