Macky Alston’s documentary focusing on Bishop Gene Robinson opened last night at the Sundance Film Festival.
Macky wrote in expectation of the premiere in an article published yesterday in Filmmaker, remembering the beginning of the journey:
When I spoke with openly gay bishop Gene Robinson about following him through a particularly harrowing period that he was about to enter, I told him that talking to him was like talking to Joan of Arc, in a time when a doc crew could capture the drama of the church/state firestorm he had found himself in. He laughed but said that it was true – he was caught in the crosshairs of cultural change and it was important to record it along the way, so he invited me to follow him for the next four years.
One of the first reviews comes from The Hollywood Reporter:
Despite the insurgent rallying cry implied by its title, Love Free or Die is a probing, even-handed account of the experience of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay, non-celibate bishop ordained in a major Christian denomination. Examining the ripple effect of his actions both in the U.S. Episcopal Church and the 78 million-strong worldwide Anglican network to which it belongs, Macky Alston’s engrossing documentary sheds light on a significant chapter in the broader struggle for LGBT rights.
Beyond the Box offers behind the scenes interviews leading up to the premiere: