Good Christ almighty!

>> The first lady of televangelism stages a comeback in the outrageous documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye

by MATTHEW HAYS

Fittingly enough, the feature-length documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye--which premieres at this year's Image&Nation Film Festival--begins with a make-up application sequence. Tammy Faye Messner (formerly Tammy Faye Bakker) pulls out her various sticks, brushes and pads and shows us her routine, the most famous of which involves her eye lashes, a combination of fake augmentations and mascara. "Without my eye lashes," she declares, "I wouldn't be Tammy Faye!"

Indeed, she wouldn't. And the highly colourful, intricately made-up Tammy Faye brings this hilarious, insightful and surprisingly revealing documentary to life, helping the film to garner rave reviews and considerable Best-Documentary-Oscar-nomination buzz. Yes, the make-up is artifice and part of a disguise, she seems to convey to the camera; but at the same time, she expresses an honesty throughout the film, making her an endearing and sympathetic character.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye is the latest concoction of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, co-founders of the L.A.-based World of Wonder productions (they also made '98's Party Monster, about New York club-kid-turned-convicted-killer Michael Alig and 101 Rent Boys, an exposé on hustling that also premieres at this year's Image&Nation). "We couldn't resist her camp iconicity," says Barbato from his L.A. office. "From a superficial point of view, we thought she was just fabulous. But on another level, she was more laughed at, more ridiculed than anyone else in the world. We wanted to know: how did she endure that? Yes, she's a big old drag queen. But what was beneath the hair and make-up?"

Gaining heavenly access

Barbato says getting the green light from Tammy Faye wasn't easy. He and Bailey spent hours with the former televangelist at the North Carolina ranch where she now lives, trying to convince her that the doc would be a good idea. "Basically, one of the only reasons she agreed was because her husband was in prison," says Barbato. (Roe Messner served two years in prison for fiscal irregularities linked to the collapse of the Praise the Lord Ministry.) "We knew she was lonely and we knew there was a window of opportunity. We kept visiting her and kept asking. We did a lot of research and she could see we'd done our homework."

Tammy Faye reports that she was initially very reluctant about the idea of letting Barbato and Bailey into her life. "I'd already told my story in my autobiography, Tammy: Telling it My Way. But they were very honest and upfront about the conditions of moviemaking. They said they were going to follow me around for a year and a half and that I'd have no say in the final cut and that I'd be paid nothing for it. I felt that if they were really out to crucify me, they wouldn't have been so open about the conditions of filmmaking. Now I thank God for this movie every day."

Warts and all

The movie takes us right back to Tammy Faye's creation, with snapshots of her as a toddler and recollections of family members. Her brother recounts her first brush with the man upstairs. Apparently, Tammy Faye had a wart that wouldn't go away. She prayed for it to disappear; miraculously it did and a true believer was born. The time line of her romance and marriage with Jim Bakker is also traced (the two were married on April Fool's Day), as is their demise as the monarchs of the PTL Ministry and Heritage Park, U.S.A., the famous massive religious theme park.

Some of the stock footage Bailey and Barbato have collected is simply brilliant religious kitsch. There are the Bakkers hosting a Christian children's show with puppets (Tammy Faye supplied the voices to many of them). There's Tammy Faye, belting out ludicrously cheesy gospel songs about the Lord's love, while sporting two-foot-high hairdos that seem to be greater than the mass of her body. And as their version of the gospel was broadcast, their TV empire grew exponentially. Their network motto: "Broadcasting until the second coming of Christ."

And there are the dark moments, with Tammy Faye losing it on air, clearly undone by an ultra-hectic schedule--at one point the couple hosted three shows a day--and too many painkillers. Eventually, she would collapse in an overdose. Rushed to Betty Ford for treatment on a private jet, Tammy Faye had to be restrained after trying to open a door at 30,000 feet. (For the record, Tammy Faye is now substance-free--unless you count her Diet Coke habit.)

Embracing the puppets

Throughout the film, Barbato and Bailey employ a playful attitude towards the material. The film is punctuated by inter-titles which are read aloud by two puppets, a device that may be lost on those without a sense of humour. And certainly, the age-old charge of exploitation of documentary subject by the filmmakers has been brought up by some critics. "Some reviewers think we're making fun of her," confirms Barbato. "But Tammy Faye informs everything in this movie and she loves puppets. We were trying to immerse ourselves in the subject."

For Tammy Faye's part, "I think the puppets are a genius idea. We're all children at heart. Even if people don't like puppets, they'll look at them. For me, the movie is a very emotional type thing, it takes you on highs and lows. The puppets bring things back down again."

It certainly seems to be poetic justice--or at least very bizarre justice--that a documentary with this high a profile about Christian televangelists would be made by a couple of homosexuals--and narrated by a drag queen, RuPaul. But Tammy Faye says gay men have always played an important role in her life and that when the chips were down, they were loyal. "I never dreamed that gay men would come out for me," she says. "It's been one of the most humbling experiences of my life, the way they've taken me in and loved me. When my husband Roe was in prison, they were the ones who took care of me. They sent me money, they sent me gifts.

"I think I'm a safe person for gay people, because they've been made fun of, put down and ridiculed and I have too. They've been made into cartoon characters and I was made a cartoon character. The fact that many people can't look past the make-up and see me, many people also can't see past the word 'gay' and see the hearts of these wonderful people. I feel that's why we have so much in common, that's why we're drawn together."

The film also proves Tammy Faye isn't just a recent convert to being gay-positive. A clip from the early '80s has Tammy Faye embracing a gay man with AIDS on her show, chastising Christians who would turn their backs on people with the disease. This is astonishing in the context of its time, when the Christian Right were consistently arguing that AIDS was divine retribution against those who dare choose the homosexual lifestyle.

An unholy conspiracy

But The Eyes of Tammy Faye isn't mere celebrity profile. As the film progresses, it becomes part-exposé, morphing into a sort of Christian Right version of JFK. Tammy Faye, Jim Bakker and their supporters dissect the high-profile collapse of the PTL Ministry and point to a conspiracy theory which suggested that other members of the religious Right ousted them from power. "Jim [Bakker] is the most honest man I've ever known," Tammy Faye tells me. "He was railroaded into prison for political reasons. His fall came right at the time that Bush and Robertson were running for president and they felt that he could swing the Christian vote. They were scared to death of him. Six million visited Heritage U.S.A. in the last year of its existence. And Falwell was Bush's best friend."

The film does not paint a rosy picture of Falwell, who is depicted as an evil manipulator, sleazily spin doctoring the Bakkers out of public favour while taking over their ministry for himself. Both Falwell and Robertson declined to be interviewed for the film. "Falwell won't even speak to me," says Tammy Faye. "I think he knows that if he meets up with me he's got to admit to what he actually did. He won't even admit to himself the terrible carnage that he caused. We were the biggest Christian network, with more viewers than Johnny Carson."

Though the film has been well received by critics and audiences, Barbato does admit to being a bit unnerved by the eerie silence from members of the religious Right. "I'm a little nervous about it," he says. "These are powerful people. We're just a couple of guys who like to make movies. If we disappear, you know where to find us. Just check Jerry Falwell's garden." :

The Eyes of Tammy Faye premieres as part of the 13th annual Image&Nation Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which runs Sept. 21-Oct. 1. See repertory listings for showtimes. See following page for more highlights. For more information on Tammy Faye: www.tammyfaye.com