The smell of s’mores and charred-wood incense conjured up the experience of a campfire at the Firestone Baars Chapel last night at Stephens College. Although the fire wasn’t real, the insights into filmmaking shared around it most definitely were.

The True/False Film Festival wrapped up a rainy second day with its first ever Campfire Stories event. Eleven individuals from the world of documentary film took turns standing by a fake campfire and sharing unheard tales and experiences surrounding their work.

The intimate setting allowed the filmmakers to get candid about the documentary process. Director Julia Reichert discussed deleted footage from her 2006 film A Lion in the House. She says the experience was unlike any other film festival event she’s ever been to.

“You can’t tell people these kinds of things in press conferences or Q&A’s,” Reichert says. “This is the kind of stuff filmmakers talk about with other filmmakers.”

Bluesy folk tunes provided the appropriate campfire music between storytellers. Director Brent Green explained the ins and outs of creating the stop-motion car crash in his film Gravity Was Everything Back Then. Other directors, such as Andris Gauja and Michael Marczak, described the challenges of drawing good footage out of documentary subject.

But the night’s most interesting speakers weren’t filmmakers. Pearl Quick and Buck Brannaman were the protagonists for documentaries To Be Heard and Buck respectively. Each told personal stories that fell outside the breadth of the films, yet added insight into their character and personality. Brannaman reflected on the times before he was the horse-taming master featured in Buck; Quick expressed the affection she had for the film crew following four years of shooting. Their stories left an impact on attendee Désirée Long.

“The event was a great look into the creative process of the filmmakers,” Long says. “But those last two speakers—I’m definitely going to go see those films.”

– Jon Hadusek