Pop Culture Fridays (Sat. edition): T/F, Day 1

The crown jewel of cultural experiences here in Columbia, MO---the True/False Film Festival---kicked off its sixth installment Thursday night. My first films were both yesterday; here are a few quick impressions/observations:

1. Reporter: Here, Eric Daniel Metzgar catalogues the trials and travels of NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof as he leads contest winners on a journalistic expedition, the goal to document the suffering of people in the eastern Congo and produce a report that will both inform and motivate his readers back in the States. This film provides the best articulation I've witnessed of the two questions that I wrestled with upon entering journalism school (and with which I wrestle daily):

First, how do you motivate people to care about vast amounts of suffering when, as the film reminds us, we see "one death as a tragedy, a million deaths as a statistic?" Centering around the notion that "compassion is an unstable emotion," we see Kristof earnestly grapple with the psychological, ethical and journalistic questions that complicate the job of the reporter.

Secondly, what is the future of journalism? Kristof and Metzgar examine the precipitous decline of print journalism and what an online-only world means for investigative reporting and advocacy journalism.

The film provides no easy answers but asks the right questions and asks of us that we consider our own culpability and our own conviction relative to the great suffering incurred by the world's peoples.



2. Sounds Like Teen Spirit: And, now...for something completely different...UK director Jamie Jay Johnson captures the ups and downs of Europe's biggest little singing competition in charming and cheeky fashion. Johnson provides an insider's look into the world of Junior Eurovision contestants, each seeking to make their countries proud and their voices heard. This film was a delight and a nice change of pace from the heaviness of Reporter. A wonderful film that deserves a wide audience.

1 movie already down today (No Impact Man) and 2 more to go (Burma VJ and Food, Inc.). More on those tomorrow...