Response>>True False

Our lovely town of Columbia, Mo. puts on a film festival every year called True False. It's a festival of documentary films, lectures, discussions, parties...the whole nine yards. It's growing in popularity and bringing in some big name films. In my time here at Mizzou I never once attended the festival. It was always one of those things I knew I should do but never got around to it. So, thank you to our professor Jan for requiring us to go. It was worth it.

I saw a film called Burma VJ. It was basically about these undercover video reporters who secretly film the injustices going on in Burma and smuggle the footage to news stations all over the world like the BBC. The film was definitely a reminder of how thankful we should be for the freedom of speech that we have. Even as designers, although we aren't using words we have the power to say so much with a photo or illustration or design--often having more impact than a story or a headline. 

I worked for the magazine Global Journalist last semester which I gave you all a little background info about to accompany the recent design work I did for GJ and their Spring 2009 issue. This film definitely placed a high importance on the publication who seeks to expose the injustices journalists around the world face. I know many of us weren't too excited about designing for the publication because it is more formatted and serious...but the film reminded me of the cause behind Global Journalist and I am definitely a little more grateful for being able to work on such an important publication. It also shows how well rounded we can be in our designing.