Columbia's film festival gets Hollywood's notice

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- In just six years, the True/False Film Festival has earned this Midwestern college town a well-deserved rep as a movie lover's paradise.

It's a place where nearly 15,000 movie-mad folks will cram into sold-out theaters, rock clubs and college lecture halls for a weekend of exclusively documentary films, not high-budget Hollywood blockbusters.

Now the film industry -- and the writers, producers, photographers, makeup artists, electricians, animators and other working folks who feed the teeming beast -- is starting to notice.

With scripts and developmental deals just a mouse click away and living costs a fraction of those found on either coast, central Missouri is carving out its own niche as a production center.

"There are a lot of people who tired of the challenge of the coasts," said director Adam Boster, a Columbia and Poplar Bluff, Mo., native who headed west after college but returned in 2001. "They want to have a family life, a beautiful place to live, and still make movies. You don't have to live in the rat race."

Boster spent eight years moving up the industry food chain in Los Angeles, working as a TV and movie grip, electrician, editor and post-production coordinator before returning to Columbia.

The 38-year-old father of six made his first feature, a martial arts film called "The Red Canvas," for $3 million in Los Angeles. He expects to film the sequel for a fraction of that cost in mid-Missouri.

The True/False fest, known for its grassroots network of dedicated volunteers, grew out of a shared love of documentary film by co-founders David Wilson and Paul Sturtz.

Wilson credits the town's close-knit arts scene -- fueled by a steady stream of youthful creativity from the nearby University of Missouri and Stephens College, a women's school -- for fomenting appreciative audiences.

"If an artist is creating something, you want it to be seen," he said.

An exotic allure

The allure of the exotic -- a flyover country film fest? -- helps Sturtz and Wilson lure filmmakers to Columbia when they work the festival circuit at Toronto, Sundance, Amsterdam and other international events.

Wilson, a Columbia native who is also a filmmaker, attended college in the Northeast but returned to his hometown to live and work.

"What can be seen as a weakness can be a strength," he said. "There's an exoticness to Columbia. And with the way technology is, it's very easy to build a film career from anywhere.

"Why wouldn't I want to live here?" he said.

Missouri film boosters hope that the excitement churning in Columbia extends throughout the state, especially in the state capital of Jefferson City 30 miles south.

Twenty years ago, Missouri became the first state to offer tax credits to the movie industry. But in the ensuing two decades, states such as Louisiana and New Mexico quickly eclipsed the Missouri model.

The state now caps payments to $1.5 million per project, with an annual maximum of $4.5 million. Some other states don't limit tax credits.

"Missouri was once the only one out there," said Jerry Jones, director of the state film office. "We are now very behind the curve."

Industry members in town for the True/False festival heard a state of the industry talk by Jones and others at the first annual meeting of the Missouri Motion Media Association.

"We'll never truly be a united industry until we have a strong statewide voice," said Lorah Steiner, director of the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau and president of the new advocacy group.

Steiner offered a straightforward explanation for Columbia's ascendancy in the filmmaking world, a variation of the old mantra, "build it and they will come."

"Creative people want to be in creative environments," she said.