True/False fest gets new headquarters

As an organizer of the popular True/False Film Festival, David Wilson is at home in the festival’s new office. “I feel like I’m in a ’40s detective movie,” he said.

Because of the festival’s success over the past four years, Wilson and co-organizer Paul Sturtz relocated the headquarters from a basement office next to Uprise Bakery in the 800 block of Broadway to a second-floor perch above Teller’s Gallery and Bar at Broadway and Ninth Street.

“We realized this year that we were pushing our space,” Wilson said. “We thought, well, this would be a good time to get some new digs.”

And new digs they got, with bold, deep-red walls, black cabinets and white metal lights. Wooden ivory-billed woodpeckers, which were mascots of this year’s festival in March, hang from the ceiling; they fly when you pull a wine cork dangling from the wings.

The decorating was done by Wilson and Sturtz in True/False colors of red, black and white, with input from a friend, Ascha Ruffin. The space, which is being leased, is at least twice as big as their former basement space.

True/False has grown to the point that coordinating it is a year-round responsibility; ticket sales to the four-day documentary festival were about 14,500 this year. But in these slower summer months, Sturtz and Wilson are opening up some space in the office to filmmakers, friends and local folks who need room for various projects and ventures.

The move was completed in early June.

“We have been really happy with the space,” Wilson said. “We have every intention of being a part of the art and culture scene here for a long time.”