PRINTFinding the truth
February 28, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
An uncanny ability to fall asleep during everything from the loudest action scenes of the last Star Wars movies to the most poignant moments of Schindler’s List has left me fearful of movie theaters. Once the lights dim, I panic for a second while I wonder if the next two hours I just locked myself into will amount to anything more than an expensive nap.
Foreign cinema presents particular snoozing problems. Documentaries don’t stand a chance. The possibility of attending a single True/False film in 2007 left me tired before I had so much as an opportunity to buy a ticket.
I regretted it less than a week later. At our regular Wednesday night meeting over cookies, wine and Bravo reality TV, my girlfriends recounted what they experienced and learned from the films. I realized I missed out on something much greater than an afternoon at the movies.
This year, Vox screen editor Kyle Puetz reignited my determination not to miss another True/False. The moment he began working on our cover package, he secured an interview with the then-nominated, now Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney. If you haven’t already secured tickets to the screenings of Taxi to the Dark Side and Gonzo, Gibney’s exploration of the thoughts and aims behind his films will leave you heading to the Artisan to get what might prove to be an already sold-out ticket by the time you read this letter.
Likewise, an interview with Margaret Brown, whose Order of the Myths investigates something I found shocking: the still-segregated Mardi Gras celebrations of Mobile, Ala. I am hungry to learn about the people involved in these events and why the tradition continues a half-century after the civil rights movement.
I’ll leave you with a final recommendation: If you haven’t gotten your film tickets yet, do so now, before the Vox staff snatches them up.
