http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/movies/matt-shepard-is-a-friend-of-mine-a-documentary-from-michele-josue.htmlMOVIE REVIEWShifting the Spotlight
Back to the Man They Knew‘Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine’a Documentary From Michele Josue By NICOLAS RAPOLD
FEB. 5, 2015Michele Josue with Matt Shepard, the subject of her film, in 1995. Mr. Shepard was killed
three years later.Credit Run Rabbit Run MediaA tender reconstruction of personal loss,
“Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine” retraces the life of the University of Wyoming student whose 1998 murder put a national spotlight on hate crimes against gay people. Variably effective, this debut feature documentary from
Michele Josue seeks to restore the
Matt Shepard of his friends’ and family’s memories, and in so doing return a human symbol to a state of ordinary but beloved individuality.
Ms. Josue narrates the film as a personal journey and a kind of grief circle with those who knew and loved the gregarious Mr. Shepard. That means a lot of tearful reminiscences, often of fairly routine bonding among friends, though his sense of belonging is, unusually, rooted abroad in the Swiss boarding school he attended while his father worked an oil job in Saudi Arabia. But practically any details would seem poignant in anticipation of what we know would come.
Ms. Josue pushes back those expectations somewhat in a couple of ways. A heartening undertow comes from Mr. Shepard’s parents: a mother ultimately turned activist and a father whose teary adoration is still inspiring. But there’s also an awful episode on Mr. Shepard’s high school trip to Morocco, where he was raped. Before his nationally reported death, he’d suffered hateful violence.
In lingering over moody night streets and trembling faces, Ms. Josue has brought this film to the verge of becoming a tear-jerker. But, as epitomized in an extraordinary scene with a conflicted priest, it’s all part of a shared soul-searching that still continues.
MATT SHEPARD IS A FRIEND OF MINE
Opened on Friday Feb 06 2015
Directed by Michele Josue
1 hour 29 minutes; not rated