The Brandon Teena Story

Long, Ken Burns-ish shots of grass and Ella Fitzgerald songs seem bizarrely out of place in this documentary of a teenager’s murder, and yet such embellishments make it no less compelling. The film retraces the life of Teena Brandon, who in her early adolescence left her Nebraska hometown and began posing as a boy, Brandon Teena. As Brandon, she won the hearts of many girls but died tragically, killed by two male friends who were furious that they’d been duped. Interviews with her killers (one is on death row) provide a chilling portrait of intolerance.

–By Ginia Bellafante