More Religious Fervor

… is just what queer community needs. And last night it was brrroughten to aGLIFF's opening salvo, Call Me Troy, the powerful Scott Bloom documentary about the life and times of firebrand Metropolitan Community Church founder Rev. Troy Perry, who "followed God's gentle still small voice in [his] mind's ear" and laid down the foundation of a gay rights movement right smackdab alongside the rock of his church.

[image-1]

"My closet burned down a long time ago! I set it on fire!" delivers the right reverend in one of the film's many cuts to his inspiring… no, that's terrifically understated: His get-up-OFF-YO-ASS-&-JAM sermons.

In addition to exploring the life of this wildly charismatic preacher, Call Me Troy makes for an impressive historical/sociological document, presenting the context of tragedies like: the deadly 1973 fire at the New Orleans Upstairs Lounge, the deadliest in the city's history, which took the lives of 32 people, including a NOLA MCC pastor; and the mysterious fire which ravaged the flagship MCC church in LA – devastating, catalyzing events that have not garnered the type of reverential and household name status in the movement as, say Stonewall. These events are our 'four little girls in Birmingham' (if you'll forgive the awkward metaphor and understand that it is offered with the utmost respect and deference), and the film's focus on them has the tremendous potential to spark this gay community of ours to follow the life teachings of Rev. Troy and go thou and do likewise.

But the man is not mythic, and the film is not at all grim and reaperly. Much to the contrary. The film friskily embraces Perry with a most fitting and uplifting bear hug (He's bear! A leatherman! Or as one friend in the film says, "leather-lite." How sweet is that? WOOF!). Tender testimony from longtime loved ones like life partner Phillip de Bleick and Jewish lesbian activist/performer Robin Tyler keep the story of Troy firmly grounded in the realm of the "fishers of men."