Thought I’d throw a light on one of my favorite documentarians of the now, Louis Theroux. He is the son of novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux and the cousin of actor/hack filmmaker Justin Theroux. A respected figure in his native England, Theroux is virtually unknown in America - his works are entirely limited to television, and as far as I know most of them haven’t been played on American TV (Anyone who regularly watches BBC America feel free to contradict me now). His programs are one hour or shorter, and they’re personal narrative works - Theroux acts as guide to some usually subaltern American culture, exploring the lives of male porn stars, Nevada prostitutes, California Nazis, or, in his most recent and best work, the Westboro Baptist Church.

Theroux isn’t a filmmaker in a traditional sense - his works are directed, edited, and sometimes written by others. But his is a distinct personal stamp that follows him from place to place. A disciple of sorts of Michael Moore’s (Theroux is perhaps best known in America as a one-time correspondent on TV Nation), he is startlingly confrontational in his discussions with subjects with radical or controversial views, objecting, arguing, and challenging figures like Tom Metzger and Shirley Phelps-Roper. He also shows Moore’s tendency toward strong empathy, but Theroux extends his empathy to his philosophical opponents. He seems pained when discovering Lamb and Lynx Gaede, the California teens who offer hate-folk as Prussian Blue, he makes a special project of converting Jael Phelps to his view. That he fails in his arguments is no surprise, but the fact that he’s there, and he’s forcing the radical to come to terms with their arguments in the kindest, most polite way possible, makes for fascinating storytelling - his films are about radicals, yes, but they’re also about the inability of the common man in the modern world to understand the mindset behind radical ideology.

Luckily, his films are easily available for viewing on Google Video:

The Most Hated Family in America (2007, Geoffrey O’Connor)

Louis and the Nazis (2003, Stuart Cabb)

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