Valentine Road: excellent documentary about the murder of a transgender teen Larry King

[Jingthing]

... and also his trial which revealed a shocking and very disturbing bias of the jurors.

Highly recommended!

Get out your handkerchiefs though.

The entire 1 1/2 hour video can be viewed here:

http://vimeo.com/78661225

Reviews here if you don't want to take my word on how good it is:

http://www.examiner.com/review/hot-docs-2013-essential-viewing-valentine-road

Valentine Road is a masterfully crafted documentary and one of the highlights of this year’s Hot Docs lineup. The film manages to be heart wrenching, maddeningly infuriating and inspirational all at the same time.

...

Valentine Road is a must see, either at Hot Docs or when it plays on HBO.

http://www.filmdude.com.au/review/valentine-road

Hours after watching "Valentine Road" tears may very well still well up; this outstanding documentary is deeply affecting

Edited April 27, 2014 by Jingthing

[onthemoon]

Have seen about half of it.

So: Larry was sent to grow up in a facility? I'm not sure what happened to his parents.

The murderer's mother was a drug addict?

The video says that bullying is quite normal in the US, so this sounds like a typical US story. "Larry had a special need", says one of his teachers. I am shuddering and am happy that I did not grow up in this environment.

How is this better than growing up in Russia?

[Jingthing]

This thread isn't about USA vs. Russia. That's insulting to the memory of Larry King who I'm sure wouldn't want to be so crassly used for a blatant anti-American, apologies for Putin agenda. The question is Russia really worse than the USA in homophobia is a fair enough question. BUT NOT HERE. I suggest you start a new thread about that.

I think this documentary portrays the situation FAIRLY. Not suggesting the boy was a saint. Realizing he made some fatal miscalculations about the level of homophobia at his school. Realizing that even the murderer was a victim of sorts, not of Larry but of his background. Also interesting is the media confusion about whether this was anti-gay crime or an anti-transgender crime (or both).

Edited May 1, 2014 by Jingthing