Love Free or Die | Review

If the title of Macky Alston’s, documentary, Love Free or Die puts you in mind of the Bruce Willis action franchise, connoting an incendiary attitude before you even glance at the first frame, you may be a tad disappointed. An account of the controversial Bishop Gene Robinson’s attempt to secure the Episocopal Church’s acceptance of blessing LGBT relationships and church, as well as the succession of future LGBT clergy, Alston’s documentary is more bridled than the title would lead you to believe.

Love Free or Die focuses on Gene Robinson’s (famously ordained in 2003) conflict with the Lambeth Conference, a convocation held every ten years by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to which all bishops, the world over, are invited. However, Gene Robinson was adamantly not invited, the Archbishop making it clear that the church does not support openly gay clergy or the blessing of LGBT unions. After being officially barred from the 2008 conference, Robinson shows up in Canterbury anyway, invited to speak at a church. During his sermon, an angry member of this church’s audience causes a significant outburst.

Alston’s documentary turns its focus on the 2009 Episcopal Convention in Anaheim, California, where Robinson helped launch a successful referendum that supported ordaining gay clergy and consecrating same sex couples. While this successful, progressive vote was a landmark achievement, it also further divided the Anglican Church community. In 2009, Robinson was also chosen to deliver the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration, and Alston also takes time to give us footage of Robinson with his partner (and their own ceremony) and Robinson’s two daughters from a previous marriage.

There’s nothing innately wrong with Alston’s documentary, other than that it seems to lack a cohesive focus. While the main thrust seems to be concerned with the subject of Gene Robinson, the documentary slips into a mild treatise on homosexuality and how divisive it is in the religious realm. While everyone should be able to practice the faith of their choosing and everyone should be respected and treated equally, it’s a bit hard to feel too emotionally distraught over the treatment of Gene Robinson and the struggle for acceptance in the religious realm. When a mangy biker stirs up a ruckus damning Robinson during his sermon, once the initial repulsion at such behavior subsides, one can’t help but wonder, why not just remove yourself from the situation?

While not to preach separate but equal, there’s still an ongoing struggle for basic civil rights going on in this country for LGBT people to have the right to marry who they want to and obtain the same guaranteed rights granted to the heteronormative majority. Robinson’s fight almost seems like the cart before the horse. Overall, Alston’s documentary feels like it’s soon to be a historical footnote, simply a broad view of a historically important gay figure and his fight for LGBT relationships to be blessed by the Episcopal Church. Frankly, it’s Barbara Harris, the first woman to become a bishop, that steals the show with her unfettered, refreshing commentary.

Reviewed on January 23rd at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival – US DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION Programme.

82 Mins.

Rating 2.5 stars