I’m now coming off film festival mode and it’s taking me some time to readjust to “civilian” life. I’m mostly missing the high of expectations—of a darkened theater and of absorbing the stories about to unfold in front of me. And what stories!

I was glad to enjoy this year’s Tribeca’s particularly strong documentary slate, starting with the eagerly awaited Outrage. Kirby Dick’s new exposé of our capital’s hypocritical power brokers—influential gay men who live closeted personal lives while publicly decrying homosexuality and supporting discriminatory practices—is sure to be controversial. Dick’s main point isn’t to “out” all gay people, but rather just those who are making it difficult for other gay folks to live decent lives. The doc covers well-known examples, such as those of ex-New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey’s failed marriage and Idaho Senator Larry Craig’s public restroom shenanigans. The film has great interviews and remarkable access to articulate, opinionated individuals. I found it remarkable that most of the cases profiled involved men, and only one woman, Mary Cheney, former Vice President Cheney’s lesbian daughter. (In fact, Cheney shouldn’t even qualify to be in the film if its premise is to only “out” closeted hypocrites. Technically, Cheney has been out of the closet for years, although her political work on behalf of the LGBT community has been dismal.) Is this a filmmaker omission? Or is the reality that the closet oppresses powerful men more than women? If that’s the case, why not address this glaring fact then?

Another incredible tale of a powerful public man with a secretive sexual self was Alexis Manya Spraic’s Shadow Billionaire. Detailing the disappearance of DHL founder and billionaire Larry Hillblom while he was flying his plane in Micronesia, the film recounts all the twists and turns of the sorting out of his estate. To consider: the many children who came forth claiming to be Hillblom’s offspring. There are many colorful characters in Billionaire; most fascinating is the small-town lawyer for one of Hillblom’s alleged heirs. 

“Cropsey” is the first name given to the bogeyman in certain parts of Staten Island. It is also the title of Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio’s intriguing documentary that tells the story of a man accused of kidnapping and murdering several children in that borough, from the 1940s to the 1970s. That this man—homeless and former janitor to the area’s mental hospital—was convicted without any physical evidence linking him to any of the children, speaks volumes about community outrage and frustration when its sense of peace and safety is disrupted. Still, I appreciated the filmmakers’ genuine curiosity and final ambiguity. (I happened to catch this doc right after the fantastic horror homage The House of the Devil by Ti West. It was an amazing, unplanned double feature!)

Two great offerings dealt with music and empowerment. The first was Beadie Finzi’s Only When I Dance, which follows talented dancers from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro as they compete for international ballet scholarships. The other was Soul Power by Jeff Levy-Hinte, which documents the gathering of extraordinary African and African-American musicians in the Zaire (now Congo) that paralleled the boxing bout between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman in 1974 (which, in turn, has been documented in the great When We Were Kings directed by Leon Gast and edited by Levy-Hinte). 

Controversial positions make for interesting post-screening Q&As, as witnessed at Simone Bitton’s Rachel. The film is an examination of the death of International Solidarity Movement member Rachel Corrie in 2003, as she tried to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip by an Israeli bulldozer. While the documentary maintains a detached stance as it surveys the before and after of Corrie’s death, an audience member questioned why the filmmaker didn’t show “all” the facts (e.g., ISM’s aiding in smuggling arms for Palestinians, etc.). Bitton’s response? “Make your own movie.” In Defamation, Yoav Shamir explores the meaning of anti-Semitism by interviewing an array of subjects, ranging from Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti Defamation League to Professor Norman Finkelstein. There is a lot of humor in the piece and Shamir’s disarming everyman persona is quite effective.

No coverage of Tribeca would be complete without mentioning two exceptional films that I first encountered when DocuClub showed them as rough cuts last year: Nicole Opper’s Off and Running, the beautiful story of a modern American family and Partly Private by Danae Elon, the most compelling nonfiction romantic comedy playing at a theater near you. Elon’s film was also the winner of the Best New York Documentary Award, and deservedly so. The screenings for these two films were sold-out affairs and audiences responded enthusiastically during the Q&As.

Congratulations to all the Tribeca Film Festival documentarians!