I’ve just returned from another unreal True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Mo. It’s one of the highlights of the year, as name-brand documentarians mingle with college kids in a town that’s much cooler than when I lived there. Standout flicks this year included “Burma VJ,” a compilation of footage from reporters who smuggle protest videos out of the oppressed nation that is now called Myanmar; and “Carmen Meets Borat,” a profile of some Romanian gypsies who were duped into playing crass Kazakhstanis in Sasha Baron Cohen’s hit travelogue (and are now suing him).

I also saw a funktastic–if underdressed–punk band called Killer Whales at Mojo’s. (And if I had trusted what the tipsters said on the Internet, I could have caught a pre-movie hoedown at the Blue Note featuring former X chanteuse Exene Cervenka, who is now tending a farm near Jefferson City.)

A weekend at a festival is good for the soul; but for a refreshing jolt of concentrated cinema, you don’t have to wait for next year’s True/False in February, or the St. Louis filmfest in November. There are two worthy film festivals slated for this spring in St. Louis.

The second annual St. Louis QFest ^[1], showcasing the best new films of special interest to the gay community, wil be March 15-19 at the Tivoli. It comprises 11 feature films–8 narratives and 3 docs–as well as 11 shorts. Organizer Chris Clark, who does double duty as the co-programmer of the St. Louis International Film Fest, gave me his top picks when I spotted him at True/False.

In the comedy “Breakfast with Scot,” Tom Cavanaugh (of TV’s “Ed”) plays a closeted gay hockey broadcaster who becomes caretaker to a flamboyant boy.

“Chef’s Special” is a Spanish comedy about a gay restaurateur in Madrid who is confronted with the offspring from his sham marriage.

The documentary “Wrangler” profiles an icon of gay erotica in the 1970s.

And the documentary “Jihad for Love” is the first-full length report on homosexuality in the Islamic world.

Tickets for QFest screenings are now available at the Tivoli box office and Web site.

The free Italian Film Festival of St. Louis ^[2] is scheduled for Friday and Saturday evenings from April 10-25 in Brown Hall at Washington University. This annual festival, organized with help from the Italian Culture Institute in Chicago, imports the latest hits from Italy, most of which would not otherwise screen in St. Louis. (A couple years ago, it presented the local premier of the acclaimed epic “The Best of Youth.”)

The full schedule for this year’s event should be posted on the Web shortly; but last week in Hollywood, I got an inkling of what might be in store when I attended an Italian film festival that happens annually in conjunction with the Oscars.  At the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theater, while real Italian paparazzi drooled over starlets from some alternate cosmos across the sea, I caught a screening of a fab film called “Postcards from Rome,” a documentary in which director Guilio Base simply jogs with his dog through the Eternal City, remarking on it splendors. I’d love to see it play here.

Italian movie buffs should also mark their calendars for March 27, when the prize-winning Mafia splatterfest “Gomorrah” opens March 27 at the Tivoli. I’ve already seen it–at a festival, of course.