Stephens student filmmakers take top awards at “Gimme Truth!” competition at True/False Film Festival

First-year digital filmmaking student Rosey Howell ’23 (pictured right) took first place in “Gimme Truth!,” a game show style competition hosted by Brian Babylon and judged by documentary film world celebrities. Howell’s classmate, first-year student Hope Daugherty ’23 (pictured left) took third place, while Columbia film director Pat Holt took second place, making for a sweep by women filmmakers.

The 10th annual competition took place on Saturday during Columbia's True/False Film Festival. Babylon, a comedian and panelist for NPR’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” was joined by judges Kirsten Johnson (“Dick Johnson is Dead,”) Jim LeBrecht (“Crip Camp”) and Ursula Liang (“Down a Dark Stairwell”).

The competition’s premise: Missouri filmmakers try to stump the judges and their fellow contestants with a short documentary style video that is either entirely true or entirely fictional.

“We are all very proud of Rosey and Hope’s achievements," said Chase Thompson, associate professor of digital filmmaking. "They represented themselves, our digital filmmaking program and Stephens College with poise, humility and grace.”