Yesterday the  AMPAS announced the list of 15 films that will contend for next year’s five Best Documentary Feature slots, and although there are several worthy films included (Waiting for “Superman”, Exit Through the Gift Shop, and The Tillman Story among them),  noticeably missing was Reed Cowan’s 8: The Mormon Proposition a scorching documentary  indictment of the Mormon Church’s historic involvement in the promotion & passage of California’s Proposition 8. Also missing from  this years list was “gayish” acclaimed exposé Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, one of the sweetest and most fascinating films, unscripted or otherwise, of the year

The same branch failed to put Kirby Dick’s “Outrage” on its shortlist last year and in years past the classic gay documentary “Paris Is Burning”

I guess the moral of the story here is: If you’re gunning for a Best Documentary Oscar nod these days, you better not be gay or Joan Rivers.

( And before anyone says it. Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop doesn’t count.  It’s an ART Documentary)