Columbia Stories

The party's as crowded as any big-city throwdown, and soon no one can raise an arm without hitting an ironic mustache. Time to leave. The line still stretches out the door, and goes all the way down Walnut Street.

Arturo Perez Torres spent hours and hours delayed in snow-smacked Toronto. He's made it to Columbia just in time for the screening of his documentary, Super Amigos. The film is about ordinary men who, after donning capes and masks, become popular wrestlers and social crusaders. Amigos focuses on Super Animal, who fights against animal cruelty; Ecologista, who walks the 200 miles to Mexico City when he learns it's the most polluted place on the planet; Super Gay, who became a human-rights activist after his boyfriend was murdered by bigots; Fray Tormenta, who runs orphanages (and is also a priest); and Super Barrio, who helps poor tenants fight against unjust landlords.

The capacity crowd cheers audibly throughout the film, and Perez Torres receives a warm ovation for his work.

"I showed this in France, and not everyone knew what to make of it," the director says. "They asked me if it was real. I grew up with this stuff, so I take it for granted: In Mexico City, superheroes are absolutely real."

If there's an overarching theme of True/False, perhaps it's that people are ready for the truth. Desperate for it, even. And sometimes the truth is so sublimely out-there that we second-guess its veracity. True/False brings together a world of such truths, and the result is both shocking and beautiful. Guatemalan families build lives out of literal garbage. People devote years to playing an invisible instrument. Men and women refuse to be defined by class or by gender. And, yes, superheroes are absolutely real.

It's enough to rebuild some faith in humanity, if only for a few days in early March.