I never thought I'd have a favorite documentary film maker, but over the last couple of months I've fallen in love with Louis Theroux's magnificent oeuvre. Theroux, son of the famous travel writer Paul Theroux, makes sympathetic but penetrating documentaries about fascinating and often overlooked subcultures, like porn-stars, UFO-hunters, Boer separatists, American black nationalists and body builders. These documentaries are so interesting, it seems to me, because Theroux disarms his interviewees with a (in my view at least, affected) wide-eyed naivete, which, when combined with his genuine affection for people, allows him to to delve impressively deeply into his subject matter.
Anyway, watch and judge for yourself. I've embedded the documentary Theroux made about (the batshit crazy) Westboro Baptist Church below (or click here). You can find more of Theroux's work on Google Video and there are a couple of working Torrents here.
Holy crap! That was scary!
ReplyDeleteI always assumed the WBC were just a bunch of ignorant, inbred, sub-100 rednecks. But they (particularly Fred's daughter) seem to be well educated, intelligent people.
A sobering reminder of the power of cults.
And an excellent documentary style! Will definitely be downloading more of these.
I thoroughly enjoy Louis' work. He is highly entertaining and makes me go "hmmmmm" very often.
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing me :)