The audience gave a rousing standing ovation after Sunday’s screening of the remarkable documentary Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth, part of QFest 2013, and it isn’t doesn’t take much to see why—Pratibha Paramar’s beautifully composed documentary exposes the often times painful path Walker had to endure to not only express truth in her writing, but also in the African-American and sexual communities.

Best known for her novel-turned-movie The Color Purple, Alice Walker’s “lack of submission” is explored throughout the film, including her candid portrayal of physical and emotional abuse that takes place in African-American families.  Walker’s notion that African-Americans were partially to blame for their own repression caused her to be deeply criticized by members of the African-American community.  Her relationship with her ex-husband, a white Jewish lawyer, is profiled in the film.  At the time, the marriage was radical, and their subsequent separation clearly haunts both Walker, her ex-husband, and their now estranged daughter.  This separation and pain that Walker endured raises many questions about the price one must pay to create art—Walker’s beautiful country estate is filmed throughout the documentary, and she makes several comments that she receives very few visitors.  However, she claims that she likes the silence.

Walker’s own sexuality is discussed throughout the film, including her relationship with singer/song writer Tracy Chapman.  Walker claims that she is not “gay” or “bisexual,” but rather that she falls in love with a person’s spirit.  Nevertheless, several literary critics interviewed in the film suggest that the relationship between Celie and Shug in The Color Purple may very well be the first time that a serious lesbian relationship was depicted in a novel.

Howard Zinn, Walker’s former professor turned friend, tells the filmmaker that Walker “goes her own way.”  Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth captures this essence in a notable fashion.