Yes, hello, I’m your stranger-than-fiction girl, so happy, and honored, really, to have been asked to guest-blog for the day for the downtime-deprived, hard working Karina Longworth. Hope you’re soaking in a big tub for two right now, dearest.

I am a documentary geek and I’m open about that. So, most of what I’ll be writing about today centers on the nonfiction world.  If you’re not into docs, hopefully, you’ll find it all interesting and entertaining, anyway.

Stranger Than Fiction is also the name of Thom Powers‘ series, almost winding down, at the IFC Center. Tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m., there will be a screening of Jessica Yu’s powerful documentary, Protagonist, followed by a Q&A with the director and an after-party hosted by exec producer Greg Carr in a swanky penthouse. The last swanky penthouse to which I got to go had the most fabulous views of our fair city, so I highly recommend trying to get into one. All you have to do in this case is buy a ticket to the screening and it will be money well-spent, trust me.

I saw Yu’s film this past spring at Full Frame. Actually, I saw a screener from the press office first on my laptop, but I also was sure to get my tush in a seat to see it in a theater at the festival. Yu does some really original work–she’s a filmmaker who takes the notion of moving outside the norm of how nonfiction stories are told to a new level. She possesses a really unique voice and vision.

Juxtaposing live interviews with four different male characters, and using archival footage of their lives intercut with highly-stylized scenes of puppets reciting Euripides‘ in the original Greek acting out the tragedies being narrated on-screen, Yu orchestrates a provocative and deeply-thoughtful chorus based on the structure of a Greek tragedy.  Independently produced by women about four male characters, the film brings a deep emotionalism and resonance that makes her choice of characters spot on. You can go to the movie site to read more about Yu’s journey, beginning with the same Mr. Carr, mentioned above, commissioning her in 2003 to make a documentary about the Greek playwright.  Challenging, yes? Potentially boring? Yes.

Yu’s film rises to the occasion quite successfully in its use of a haunting musical score, its editorial rhythm, and in its use of four compelling main characters, all of whom share their personal, very painful journeys to the other side of some pretty intense revelations. All peaceful, fairly settled men now, they relive the traumas that molded them into the people they are today. And, yes, it is quite challenging to watch, but far from boring. I’m fairly certain Yu’s body of work will continue to expand into new and stranger worlds and her vision for whatever story she’s telling will blow the lid off of traditional documentary, especially if she’s tasked with representing another of the world’s oldest storytellers, or something as equally “un-filmable.” One to watch, for sure.