More than a year ago, when I suddenly became interested in watching documentaries, someone on Twitter, I think it was Katie from She Likes Movies, suggested me Author: The JT LeRoy Story. I finally watched it and it was one of the most interesting and compelling documentaries I've seen.
As you probably guessed from the title, this documentary tells the story of JT LeRoy, which tells you absolutely nothing if, like me, you have never heard of him before --which is absolutely insane as, according to the documentary, he had a huge success in Italy (I'm from Italy, just in case you don't know).
So JT LeRoy was a bestselling young author from early 2000s, supposedly the son of a prostitute, who used his experiences of poverty, drug use, emotional and sexual abuse in his childhood and adolescence to write semi-autobiographical books. At least, that's what people thought.
As it turned out in 2005 as some journalists started digging into it, JT LeRoy was not a real person but was a work of fiction himself, created by a 40-year-old former phone-sex operator called Laura Albert, which came as a huge shock as people had actually seen and meet JT LeRoy, and it was definitely not Albert. The JT LeRoy everyone knew was actually Albert's sister-in-law, Savannah, who Albert convinced to wear a wig and sunglasses and make appearances in public as LeRoy when the books took off and people, specifically celebrities, including director Gun Van Sant and actress Asia Argento, wanted to meet him. Because of this, Albert was accused of being a fraud.
But was she? This is what Author: The JT LeRoy Story is all about. Although the story is told almost entirely from Albert's viewpoint as she explained what she did, why she did it and how she got away with it for such a long time, and therefore there isn't much objectivity, it's incredibly fascinating and engaging to watch her build such a legend and sustain so many different identities.
She is clearly a pathological liar, which makes you doubt every single word she says, but she still is such an interesting character, and I kind of felt sympathetic to her as she still is someone who went through and endured a lot in her life. Also, I'm still amazed by what she managed to accomplish. Did she orchestrate everything because she was losing the spotlight? I don't know. Does it really matter though who's behind a work of fiction? It doesn't, in my opinion, and it's not like she did harm someone.
As you probably guessed from the title, this documentary tells the story of JT LeRoy, which tells you absolutely nothing if, like me, you have never heard of him before --which is absolutely insane as, according to the documentary, he had a huge success in Italy (I'm from Italy, just in case you don't know).
So JT LeRoy was a bestselling young author from early 2000s, supposedly the son of a prostitute, who used his experiences of poverty, drug use, emotional and sexual abuse in his childhood and adolescence to write semi-autobiographical books. At least, that's what people thought.
As it turned out in 2005 as some journalists started digging into it, JT LeRoy was not a real person but was a work of fiction himself, created by a 40-year-old former phone-sex operator called Laura Albert, which came as a huge shock as people had actually seen and meet JT LeRoy, and it was definitely not Albert. The JT LeRoy everyone knew was actually Albert's sister-in-law, Savannah, who Albert convinced to wear a wig and sunglasses and make appearances in public as LeRoy when the books took off and people, specifically celebrities, including director Gun Van Sant and actress Asia Argento, wanted to meet him. Because of this, Albert was accused of being a fraud.
But was she? This is what Author: The JT LeRoy Story is all about. Although the story is told almost entirely from Albert's viewpoint as she explained what she did, why she did it and how she got away with it for such a long time, and therefore there isn't much objectivity, it's incredibly fascinating and engaging to watch her build such a legend and sustain so many different identities.
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Oooh now this does sound interesting! I've only recently gotten into watching Documentaries myself :) Have you seen Tickled yet? It's WEIRD, but so interesting!
ReplyDeleteYes, I did. It's the weirdest documentary I've seen so far. Was not expecting to see that.
DeleteI've always been fascinated by this story every since I read The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. I didn't realize she was a fraud at the time until I watched the movie based on the book. I think having read so much about Laura already, I wanted a bit more from this from Savannah's point of view. I read her book Girl Boy Girl and that was fascinating. Highly recommend.
ReplyDeleteGreat review!
I want to read both but I'm having such a hard time finding them. I guess I'll have to get them from Amazon US.
DeleteAlso, something from Savannah's point of view would be very interesting.
DeleteI heard about this film as there's a new narrative-based film in the works about LeRoy with Kristen Stewart playing the character.
ReplyDeleteI think Stewart will nail the character.
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