Author: The JT LeRoy Story

I'll make this short but sweet.

A forty-year old straight woman wrote a couple of wonderful and beloved works of fiction.

She was subsequently accused of "manipulating the system" by posing as a young, gay male.

The fact is, those much beloved books probably never would have seen the light of day had she not take the route that she did.

And as a writer, that makes me madder than anything.

Laura Albert was abused as a child. As an adult, she started to write: fiction, but intensely personal fiction, informed by her past. Her voice, as a writer, was that of a young (gender-uncertain) man. But far from this voice being an intellectual creation, her character was almost an alternative personality, a being through whom she channelled a part of her self that she couldn't reach any other way. One could Laura had a gift for a form of role-play that had very little to do with play (J.T. Leroy was not the only persona who she could adopt more or less at will but with an almost uncontrollable conviction). When she published, she did so under the J.T. Leroy name. And she used that character's biography as a lever to attract interest in the stories he was telling. It's odd, fiction is fiction, but as the audience we like it if we feel it is based on personal experience. And J.T. was the author who just might have written Albert's novels, although the irony is that the books were still deeply personal, albeit less obviously than if J.T. had actually existed and written them himself.

Then the story gets really weird. The books are a hit; the media wants to see J.T.; Laura persuades a (female) relative to act as J.T. in public, while she herself adopts another guise as J.T.'s manager. J.T. becomes famous, a friend to countless celebrities. Then eventually, the truth gets out and in the end, Albert is sued for fraud.

It's an amazing story, relayed in this film. Less interesting than the "is it fraud?" aspect is Albert's amazing ability to sustain multiple identities, and what's sad is the story of personal trauma that might have caused this to be. It's also interesting to see the way that our culture needs to make events out of things, that instead of simply judging what only ever claimed to be fiction on its merits, it's the media's obsession with the character of the author that makes Albert's deceptions a public phenomenon (although, to be fair, this is also what enables Albert to sell so many books and to meet so many famous people). The film definitely is Albert's telling of her story, and her self-evident skill in manipulating reality means one has to watch it with a measure of caution; but for the most part it rings true, a fascinating yet in places disturbing tale of life and art intermingling.

"Author: The JT Leroy Story" (2016 release; 110 min.) brings the story of the JT Leroy literary phenomenon from the late 90s./early 00. As the movie opens, we see Winona Ryder give praise to JT Leroy for being such an inspiration. We then go back to "Brooklyn, 1995" and we get to know a woman by the name of Laura Albert, who, as it turns out, is the voice and brains behind JT Leroy, a shy 15 yr. old boy who may be imaginary to us, but is all too real in Laura's mind and, as we'll see in the movie, in the minds of many other people (Dennis Cooper, Bruce Benderson, Billy Corgan, Courtney Love, etc.). To tell you more of the story would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this documentary is written and directed by Jeff Feuerzeig, who previously brought us another outstanding documentary called "The Devil and Daniel Johnston". Here he examines the JT Leroy story, and the fine line that exists between original authorship and a hoax. When all this happened in the mid/late 90s, I was vaguely aware of it, but by no means in the amount of details that we are given here. It is an absolutely fascinating story that would be hard to believe, if in fact it hadn't happened. You can't make this stuff up! Laura Albert is of course a master storyteller, and she carries the documentary on her back, both for the good and for the not-so-good. As she points out, the books published under the JT Leroy name were clearly labeled "FICTION".

I saw "Author: The JT Leroy" this past weekend at the Landmark E Street Cinema in Washington, DC. The early evening screening where I saw this at was attended okay but not great (I don't know how long this has been playing already). If you are in the mood for a great documentary that examines many interesting aspects of what some call the greatest literary hoax ever, you cannot go wrong with this. "Author: The JT Leroy Story" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

The subject of the film was very interesting but I became increasingly annoyed by the directors showing off. "I felt I was underwater' cut to footage shot underwater. 'I felt I was in a movie', cut to footage imitating a b movie, the director felt the need to underline everything as if the viewer could not imagine for themselves. Words were repeatedly scrawled over the image accompanied by an effect, OK for a while but it repeatedly became a stylistic tic. Tiresome. A shame because the subject was fascinating, It would have been better if the animations were in ironic counterpoint not simply illustrative. There were also many, many shots of telephones.

This film is a document of genius, however twisted and malformed it might have arrived onto the world. You get a sense that without the betrayal inherent in the story, Laura Albert's writing might have not been met with the same fanfare. Fair? Unfair? Does it matter? What Albert pulled off was her own; she brought an alter ego to life, and bamboozled a lot of people in the process. She also happens to be, as herself, a brilliant writer and public speaker, and this movie is transfixing because of her, rather than in spite of her. The way she tells her story in this documentary is completely delicious.

I won't bother with a primer, since those tuning into the film will surely know how about said deception, but won't know the details until they see it here. Those who have no clue about this story deserve to hear it from the horse's mouth.

What I'm most interested in what this deception/accomplishment says about the nature of celebrity and fame versus what it says about either Albert or the woman she enlisted to play JT LeRoy, Savannah Knoop. They were both playing roles, as were so many of the people they ingratiated themselves with; celebrities who knocked on their doors, rather than the other way around. The whole ordeal could be seen as a kind of long form performance art, although that would be unfairly generous, and Albert is so amusingly blunt in this documentary that she doesn't even try to pawn it off as such. She just explains how her lie got out of hand, and how amazed she was that it exploded so far out of proportion. She appears to be completely honest here, and that candidness is what makes the film so fun, and so astonishing.

I loved hearing Laura Albert as herself. A woman who was so afraid to be seen as the author of her own writing, as somebody so self conscious and suffering such negative self image, that it wasn't even a matter of trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes, it was just a matter of necessity. Albert's con is so outlandish that it deserves a level of appreciation for the sophistication and dedication that went into it, although there is a level of illness and/or malevolence at play too.

This doc has been rightfully accused of glossing over some of this and presenting a single side of this story - many of LeRoy's suitors and admirers were horrified to learn that intimate conversations had been taped. Many people were embarrassed. And mostly people just wanted to believe, and wanted to be close to LeRoy, in whatever way, sometimes intimately. This is a game of celebrity, and if somebody wants to be famous this way, then so be it.

What separates Albert from a fame digger, or her as a fifteen minute idol is that she ultimately is a very talented writer, and wrote in a way that people responded to very deeply. And as a doc, this is about as entertaining as one could be.