Kirby Dick focuses his camera on closeted politicians who lobby for anti-gay legislation in the U.S.

Linking you all to Out’s interview with Kirby Dick feels appropriate since, once upon a time — before the aforementioned mag looked and smelled like the men’s department at Barney’s, it used to engage in the practice of publishing the names of closeted men and women of influence. Consider rallying your friends and allies, think about how rad it would be if Act Up and the Mattachine Society were still active, and realize there are handfuls of people like former U.S. Senator Larry Craig who live horrible lives and actively oppress people of their own kind around the world.

Director: Kirby Dick
Stars: Barney Frank
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Genre: Documentary

A mixture of original interviews, archival footage, and photographs sheds light on the life experiences of Mike Tyson.

James Toback is known primarily as a writer, and he hasn’t helmed a documentary in a decade, but his connection to Mike Tyson, which reaches back to 1987, when Toback was directing The Pick-Up Artist, makes him the only credible filmmaker to handle a profile of the former heavyweight champ (sorry Spike Lee and others). Back then, Toback acknowledges he spoke with Tyson about his experiences in losing himself — “to have the ‘I’ disintegrate, and to feel disembodied, as if there were a void inside.” With a bond like this, that strengthened through Tyson’s prison stint and continues to this day, what else do you really need to know before you rush out to see one of the best documentaries of this year?

Rated R for language including sexual references.

Director: James Toback
Stars: Mike Tyson
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: 27 March 2009 (UK)
Genre: Documentary

Filmmaker Kate Churchill is determined to prove that yoga can transform anyone. Nick Rosen is skeptical but agrees to be her guinea pig. Kate immerses Nick in yoga, and follows him around the world as he examines the good, the bad and the ugly of yoga. The two encounter celebrity yogis, true believers, kooks and world-renowned gurus. Tensions run high as Nick’s transformational progress lags and Kate’s plan crumbles. Ultimately, what they find is not what they expected.

After two weeks of above-average performance in NYC, Kate Churchill’s documentary moves on to LA, where it should experience similar success before it ascends to further glory across the country. Most critics have noted the doc’s Super Size Me-like plotting as one of many reasons for its ability to connect with audiences.

Director: Kate Churchill
Stars: Nick Rosen
Studio: Balcony Releasing
Genre: Documentary

At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the “demi-gods of Canadian metal, ” influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, despite never hitting the big time. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams.

If you were an 80s metal head, chances are you either worshiped Anvil or saw them support one of your favorite bands during that pre-Nirvana era. (Jovi!) The word-of-mouth is strong here: it all started at Sundance in 2008, then started to fade until VH1 got behind Sacha Gervasi’s documentary and helped crank up the publicity amps by putting Anvil on a mini tour as the platform release unfurls this month. While the trailer reveals the band’s current fate, I am wondering whether the doc’s hopeful success will help Gervasi get his Hervé Villechaize project made.

Director: Sacha Gervasi
Stars: Robb Reiner, Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow, Tiziana Arrigoni
Studio: Abramorama
Release Date: 20 February 2009 (UK)
Genre: Documentary

It’s been two long years since the sharp-witted Jay McCarroll was dubbed “the next great American designer” on season one of reality TV’s Project Runway, and he’s anxious to finally show his first line of clothing. The feature documentary, “Eleven Minutes,” chronicles his year-long journey preparing his first independent runway show for New York’s Fashion Week in Bryant Park and the subsequent selling of his line to stores. The result is an in-depth, painfully raw and humorous exploration of the creative process and the constant conflict of balancing commerce with art, fame with talent, and reality-TV with actual reality.

Michael Selditch and Robert Tate first sat down with Jay McCarroll for the pro-Bravo, faux-confessional Project Jay, but I hear this time around the co-directors caught every caustic and revealing comment McCarroll can offer about his life before, during, and especially after his time on “PR,” the formerly wonderful reality/competition show whose fifth season was a bore (I wake up sometimes, still irritated by Suede, Blayne, Kenley, and Joe) and upcoming season is buried in a pile of litigation. Take this one in to reminder yourself that McCarroll is actually a slightly better celebrity Christian Siriano — though Siriano is the superior designer — while both men pale in comparison to Evan Biddell, the season-one winner of “Project Runway Canada.” While this documentary is set to kill in cities across the country, I have my eye on The September Issue’s fall release, and take delight in knowing that more fashion docs are in the works.

Rated R for language.

Director: Michael Selditch Robert Tate
Stars: Jay McCarroll
Studio: Regent Releasing
Release Date: 20 February 2009 (USA)