"The Redemption of General Butt Naked"
U.S. Documentary competition
*** 1/2
Sometimes, a documentarian finds a subject so compelling that the best course of action is simply to turn on the camera and hang on for the ride. Directors Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion do that in this riveting documentary, following Joshua Milton Blahyi, a former warlord in Liberia's bloody civil war (who led child soldiers into battle without clothes on, hence his moniker) who was born again and now works as an evangelical Christian preacher ministering to his former soldiers. The filmmakers leave it to viewers to decide whether Blahyi's conversion is genuine. Blahyi is a charismatic speaker, and the film captures that perfectly -- as well as the way he has bared his soul in his effort to atone for years of murder.
"The Redemption of General Butt Naked" screens again at: Monday, Jan. 24, at 6:45 p.m. at the Broadway Centre Cinemas, Salt Lake City; Thursday, Jan. 27 at noon at the Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City; Friday, Jan. 28, at the Sundance resort; and Saturday, Jan. 29, at noon at the Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City.
- Sean P. Means
