Fall from Grace exposes the twisted, insular world of Baptist preacher Fred Phelps and his aggressive crusade to stamp out homosexuality. Along with his extended brood, which includes dozens of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren who speak just like him, Phelps travels from his Topeka, Kansas headquarters across the U.S. to spread his message and wreak havoc. First-time documentary filmmaker K. Ryan Jones spent 12 months following the man who’s gained national attention picketing the funerals of AIDS victims and the funerals of servicemen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. To Phelps, these casualties of war are God’s punishment on a country that accepts homosexuality as “normal.”

Jones gets behind the scenes at Sunday sermons, picketing sessions and Phelps family gatherings to shed light on what motivates the preacher and his followers. Interviews with two of his children who abandoned “the cause” several years ago provide intriguing insight into what might fuel Phelps’ fire of hate. Jones doesn’t have to look far to find people from the anti-Phelps contingent who are willing to talk, including the mayor of Topeka and theologians who provide fascinating passage-by-passage analysis of the scripture from which Phelps and his clan claim to derive their truths. Like a gruesome car wreck that catches and keeps your eye, is difficult, disturbing and fascinating all at once. — BRENDAN PETERSON