The lines crawls along the side of the building down a back alley. Climbing up the stairs, the winds are frigid and the ice crunches on the steps below your feet. You’ve just seen After Tiller and The Act of Killing. Is the world a cold, depressing place? Is there hope or happiness? Is there laughter and dancing and freedom?
There is. It was at the now-infamous @ction Party at Tonic nightclub Friday night of the True/False Film Fest. Festival attendees looking to escape and let their hair down after a long day of doc-watching paid $20 to get into the venue, and goddamn it if they weren’t going to have a good time.
Tonic was a labyrinth decorated with a creative sprucing-up of a hipster’s eighth-grade birthday party. Paper mache was replaced by wrinkled and dried plastic bags and balloons were upgraded to these weird arrangements of packing materials. It worked…kind of. It definitely looked better than the concrete walls and overhead piping that made up Tonic before.
Photo by Bethany Christo
The theme overall was presumed to be a pixie-infested, woodsy wonderland, but it came up a little short. This cross and lighted bouquet were a nice touch.
The go-go dancers from Hella Go-go lit up the dance floor and added to the celestial vibe.
Photo by Bethany Christo
In one of the many secluded upstairs lounges, some @ction Party attendees liked to relax after a long day instead of shaking themselves silly on the dance floor like majority of the partygoers.
Aisha Kareem has seen this a few times before. Although she currently calls Columbia home, she’s lived in Los Angeles, Hawaii, Minneapolis and the Maryland area. “I lived in a big city all of my life,” Kareem says. “True/False gives me a taste of the city life I love.”
She’s fresh from one of the secret screenings and came to the @ction Party to celebrate. “My birthday is on Monday, so True/False is a chance for me to treat myself every year.”
The personal aspect of the festival is a big draw for Kareem.
“One of my favorite parts about True/False is the one-on-one interactions you get with the directors, producers and subjects of the documentaries,” she says. “They work so hard for so long on these films; it’s so cool to be able to walk up to them after the show and shake their hands.”
The first few hours of the party were a waiting game between everyone there–who was going to venture onto the dance floor first? As the night went on, the slight stink of B.O. and the mustiness that accompanies a day of sitting in dark rooms slowly emerged. Coats were jammed into every corner of the place as people stripped off pretty much everything except for the all-important pass around his or her neck.
Photo by Bethany Christo
Photo by Bethany Christo
Photo by Bethany Christo
Photo by Bethany Christo
Photo by Bethany Christo
Photo by Bethany Christo
Photo by Bethany Christo
Photo by Bethany Christo
Photo by Bethany Christo
