The Brandon Teena Story

Librarians who do viewer's advisory will find themselves recommending The Brandon Teena Story as an important documentary to see, preferably before their patrons view Boys Don't Cry, the fictionalized account of a small-town young woman passing as a man who comes to a tragic end when the crowd she is running with finds out the truth and punishes her--first by rape, and days later, by murder--for her deviance from the norm. Viewers will discover some important factual corrections here (another victim, Philip Levine, expunged from the feature film as an artistic non sequitur, is remembered and honored), and those who criticized Boys Don't Cry for its harsh representation of the sheriff's interview of Teena, and working-class poor caricatures of Brandon's small-town friends, will find that the film cleaned-up and soft-pedaled the truth: the sheriff's real testimony was actually harsher, while Brandon's running mates were the epitome of trailer-park ignorami. Combining powerful interviews smartly interwoven with frequent visual references to Brandon Teena's milieu--the trailer parks, the Nebraska countryside, and the tired neighborhoods where her luck ran out--The Brandon Teena Story will make a valuable addition to any library's video collection and is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (K. G. Schneider)