DIRECTOR: David Byrne
PRODUCER: Gary Kurfirst
PRODUCTION CO: True Stories Venture
​SCREENPLAY: Stephen Tobolowsky, Beth Henley, David Byrne
PHOTOGRAPHY: Ed Lachman
EDITOR: Caroline Biggerstaff
MUSIC: Talking Heads
WITH:  Jame David Byrne (Narrator), John Goodman (Louis Fyne), Spalding Gray (Earl Culver), Annie McEnroe (Kay Culver), Swoosie Kurtz (Miss Rollings, The Lazy Woman), Pops Staples (Mr Tucker) 

REVIEWS

“Music icon David Byrne was inspired by tabloid headlines to make his sole foray into feature-film directing, an ode to the extraordinariness of ordinary American life and a distillation of what was in his own idiosyncratic mind. The Talking Heads front man plays a visitor to Virgil, Texas, who introduces us to the citizens of the town during preparations for its Celebration of Specialness. As shot by cinematographer Ed Lachman, Texas becomes a hyperrealistic late-capitalist landscape of endless vistas, shopping malls, and prefab metal buildings. In True Stories, Byrne uses his songs to stitch together pop iconography, voodoo rituals, and a singular variety show—all in the service of uncovering the rich mysteries that lurk under the surface of everyday experience.”

– Criterion
​
“This being a one-man-band job for Byrne who writes, stars, and directs, True Stories still features a number of songs written by Byrne and performed by various members of the cast, as well as by Byrne’s band (the members of which make cameo appearances). This movie does what some painters try to do: it recasts ordinary images into strange new shapes. There is hardly a moment in True Stories that doesn’t seem everyday to anyone who has grown up in mid-America, and not a moment that doesn’t seem haunted with secrets, evasions, loneliness, depravity or hidden joy.”

​– International Film Festival Rotterdam 2008

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Bigger Picture Ōamaru
Tuesday, 24 February, 7.00pm

Hamilton  
Monday, 09 March, 6.30pm​

Nelson
Wednesday, 18 March, 6.00pm

Carterton
Friday, 27 March, 7.30pm

Auckland  
Tuesday, 07 April, 6.15pm 

Dunedin 
Wednesday, 13 May, 6.00pm

Timaru
​Tuesday, 05 May, 6.30pm 

Palmerston North
Wednesday, 30 July, 6.00pm

Tauranga
Wednesday, 24 June, 6.00pm

Queenstown   
Tuesday, 01 September, 8.00pm​

New Plymouth   
Wednesday, 16 September, 6.00pm​

Whanganui   
Monday, 28 September, 7.00pm

Canterbury
Monday, 05 October, 7.00pm

Wellington   
Monday, 30 November, 6.00pm​

Wellington   
Monday, 30 November, 8.30pm​​

Westport   
Wednesday, 13 January 2027, 7.00pm​​
MUSICAL NOT MUSICAL >> ​