Available on VOD: THE CULT OF JT LEROY
Marjorie Sturm’s look at an infamous literary sensation had its world premiere at DOC NYC in 2014. It went on to screen at Hot Docs, SF Indiefest, Florida, Outfest, Boston LGBT, Portland’s QDoc, Durban, Melbourne, Antenna, RIDM, Rio, and Queerlisboa, among others. The doc is available on VOD via iTunes as well as on Fandor, SundanceNow Doc Club, and the film’s website.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
JT LeRoy burst onto the literary scene in the late 1990s, attracting a devoted following through stark tales of poverty, abuse and underage prostitution in books like SARAH and THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS. His was a rags-to-riches story, with his own tortured life inspiring his writing – or so he claimed. Drawn into LeRoy’s inner circle before the truth came to light, director Marjorie Sturm was misled like many others. Through intimate interviews with many close to the tarnished figure, she attempts to untangle what really happened, and in the process explores how this deception called into question not only the value of LeRoy’s writing absent authenticity, but our culture’s complicity within the author’s seductive cult of personality.
what (not) to doc 