THE CULT OF JT LEROY

90 min

WORLD PREMIERE JT LeRoy burst onto the literary scene in the late 1990s, attracting a devoted following through stark tales of poverty, abuse and underage prostitution in books like Sarah and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. His was a rags-to-riches story, with his own tortured life inspiring his writing—or so he claimed. Drawn into LeRoy’s inner circle before the truth came to light, director Marjorie Sturm was misled like many others. Through intimate interviews with many close to the tarnished figure, she attempts to untangle what really happened, and in the process explores how this deception called into question not only the value of LeRoy’s writing absent authenticity, but our culture’s complicity within the author’s seductive cult of personality. (USA, 90 min.)

Director: Marjorie Sturm

Producer: Marjorie Sturm

Cinematographer: Peggy Peralta

Editor: Josh Melrod

Music: Ernesto Diaz-Infante

Language: English

Country: USA

Year: 2014

Journalism

Performance

Women Directors

THE CULT OF JT LEROY

FILM