Comingsoon.net
September 6, 2006

The Chosen One
By Edward Douglas

This week, I had trouble picking just one movie to focus on because both of these seemed worthy of attention. While at first, the two choices this week would seem to have nothing in common except their distributor, IFC, there is a running theme between them about redemption and how our decisions in life affect how people view us. In that sense, Maggie Gyllenhaal's Sherry Swanson couldn't be any more different than Father Mychal Judge, the subject of Glenn Holsten's stirring documentary Saint of 9/11, but they're both very interesting stories in their own right.

Judge is an amazing man, a Franciscan priest born and raised in Brooklyn to an Irish family who spent years of his life struggling with his own alcoholism while fighting for the rights of the needy, supporting important causes like the war in Northern Ireland. It takes over 45 minutes before the movie even mentions Judge's homosexuality, something which seems unheard of for a man of faith, but it helped to make him a strong voice for gay Catholic men and those suffering from AIDS who found themselves alone and forgotten by the Catholic Church. Sadly, people first learned about Judge when he was killed in the 9/11 attacks, but through interviews with Judge's close friends and acquaintances, Saint of 9/11 creates a loving portrait of a man who touched many lives. It's a moving film that is very likely to be one of the five Oscar nominated documentaries this year.