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Kirby Dick's new documentary Outrage, which premiered at Tribeca last month and opened theatrically last week, is an exposé of U.S. politicians, like Larry Craig, who spew anti-gay rhetoric and vote against gay rights while secretly living gay lives themselves. As you'd imagine, the film has sparked some controversy -- but who would have guessed it would cause problems at liberal NPR?

As first reported by IndieWIRE on Monday, NPR ran a positive review of the film by Nathan Lee, who, in the course of discussing the film, named some of the specific politicians whose hypocritical double lives the film investigates, including former New York City mayor Ed Koch and current Florida governor Charlie Crist. When the review was published, though, Lee was surprised to find that the NPR editors had removed those names from it. Incensed, Lee had his byline removed from the review, too.

What's been happening at the Tribeca Film Festival the past couple of days?

Deals. Discussions are underway on several titles, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Distribution executives were spotted at Conor McPherson's drama The Eclipse, a title that jumped out at me when the lineup was first announced. The great Ciaran Hinds (Rome, Munich) stars in an "atmospheric drama about a widower who sees and hears strange things in his house." Aidan Quinn and Iben Hjejle (High Fidelity) also star. Other titles "in play" include Cheryl Hines' comedy Serious Midnight, written by the late Adrienne Shelly, starring Kristen Bell, Justin Long, and Meg Ryan; Jake Goldberger's drama Don McKay, starring Thomas Haden Church and Elisabeth Shue; and Marshall Curry's Racing Dreams, a documentary about Go-Kart racing.

Our Coverage. Kirby Dick's "engrossing, revelatory" doc Outrage makes its message clear, wrote Eric D. Snider: "If you're a politician who publicly oppresses the gay community while secretly belonging to it, Kirby Dick will kick your closet door down and tell the world what a hypocrite you are." Eric also reviewed the Academy Award-winning Japanese drama Departures, "a perfect Oscar choice, a fine film that's gently funny and moving and not the least bit challenging or controversial." You can view all our coverage by clicking this handy link.

Blog Talk. The aforementioned doc Racing Dreams "alienated and creeped ... out" Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere, who explained: "I trust I'm not the only urban-residing blue-state guy who despises the whole blue-collar NASCAR thing." I'm sure the feeling is mutual. Eric Kohn at The Wrap describes Off and Running, a doc by Nicole Opper, as "the fascinating story of an adopted African-American teen raised by lesbian Jewish parents in Brooklyn ... The combination of community forces behind its existence makes [it] the quintessential Tribeca product."

Hypocrites beware: Kirby Dick will have none of your shenanigans. His Oscar-nominated Twist of Faith dealt with sex-abuse cover-ups within the Catholic Church, and This Film Is Not Yet Rated let the irrational and inconsistent MPAA ratings board have it with both barrels. Now, in the engrossing, revelatory new Outrage, the message is clear. If you're a politician who publicly oppresses the gay community while secretly belonging to it, Kirby Dick will kick your closet door down and tell the world what a hypocrite you are.

The incendiary but thoughtful filmmaker presumably has no beef with politicians who put up a straight facade while secretly gayin' it up when their voting record doesn't suggest anti-gay sentiments. It's only when they spend their days voting against gay marriage and domestic-partnership benefits and filling their speeches with anti-gay rhetoric that Dick believes their private deeds ought to be made public. Outrage is based on the premise -- which Dick assumes we agree with before he begins -- that such votes are tantamount to homophobia, and that voters therefore deserve to know what their elected homophobes are up to after hours.

And that is Outrage: a series of U.S. politicians with anti-gay voting records are dragged out of the closet. Dick avoids sensationalism, even though the material is inherently steamy, and even though his last name is Dick, for crying out loud. If my last name were Dick and I were making this movie, there's no way I'd be able to keep it classy.

My, my, the Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) has certainly grown up. It seems like it was born only yesterday, and already it's celebrating its eighth edition. This year's festivities got started on Wednesday evening with a "by invitation only" screening of Woody Allen's Whatever Works, the director's first NYC-based film in five years. Only a few members of the press were allowed to attend: three of the four reviews linked at Rotten Tomatoes were negative. Coincidence?

Deals. ESPN picked up TV rights to Jonathan Hock's documentary The Lost Son of Havana, according to indieWIRE, and will broadcast the film in August. The doc follows Luis Tiant, a Major League Baseball pitcher from 1964 to 1982, as he returns to his homeland of Cuba after 46 years of exile. Tiant once said: "We should never forget what has happened to the people in Cuba for forty years."

First Run Features acquired Yoav Shamir's Defamation, and plans a fall release. As reported by indieWIRE, "In the doc, Shamir embarks on a quest to answer the question 'What is anti-Semitism today?'" Ex-paratrooper Shamir previously made the excellent Checkpoint; when his latest debuted at the Berlin fest in February, Howard Feinstein in Screen International praised the director's "lighter approach," calling the film "a well-researched but unapologetically subjective essay."

Our Coverage. Public screenings began on Thursday afternoon, and our own Eric D. Snider caught The Swimsuit Issue, which is "about a group of ordinary men of varying ages and physiques who combine to create Sweden's first all-male synchronized swimming team." He observed: "Hard to believe this and Ingmar Bergman came from the same place." Eric also reviewed Fear Me Not, "a slow-burning psychological thriller" from Denmark, starring Ulrich Thomsen and Paprika Steen.

After the jump: Blog Talk (i.e., what other people are saying.)

Documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick is no stranger to controversy, and it sounds like his latest project, set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival later this month, might be the most eyebrow-raising yet. After addressing pedophile priests in Twist of Faith (which earned an Oscar nomination) and the corrupt MPAA ratings system in This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Dick is now going after a different breed of hypocrite: politicians who promote anti-gay legislation while secretly living gay lives themselves.

The film is called Outrage, and our colleagues at IndieWIRE have seen an early cut of it. (Dick says they'll be editing right up to the last minute, to ensure timeliness.) The film has interviews with openly gay politicians like Barney Frank, but the real meat seems to be reporting on the closeted politicians -- mostly Republican men -- who rail against homosexuality publicly while engaging in it privately. IndieWIRE, while refraining from spoiling any surprises, says there are stories here that have not been publicized before. So it's not just Larry Craig and Mark Foley, but others, too.

If that's the case, then the weather forecast calls for major s***storms once the film debuts at Tribeca on April 24. Magnolia is releasing it theatrically shortly thereafter, on May 8, to capitalize on whatever brouhaha erupts; I hope that this doesn't cause the film to come across as vindictive or sensationalistic. I've admired all of Dick's previous documentaries, not least because they've stayed on the side of truth and justice and didn't engage too much in pettiness. Dick tells IndieWIRE that the purpose of the film is not just to out closeted politicians -- and that's good. If a politician (or anyone else) wants to stay closeted, that's fine. It's only when they're simultaneously endorsing public policies that hurt the gay community that it becomes an issue.

The Tribeca Film Festival has been in the news lately for significant personnel changes, but what about the movies? This year's edition gets underway on April 22, and Cinematical has received a list of the first 38 of the 86 feature films that will be screened. A few titles that jumped out at me:

The Eclipse. The great Ciaran Hinds stars in an "atmospheric drama about a widower who sees and hears strange things in his house." Hinds was fairly magnificent in the TV series Rome and stood out in Steven Spielberg's Munich. Add to that Iben Hjejle and Aidan Quinn as writers the widower encounters at a literary festival, and this is a drama that I want to see.

The Fish Child. Lucia Puenzo made the well-regarded XXY and now comes a "a passionate love story in the arms of a pulsating thriller." I love the idea that for her sophomore feature, the director has made what is evidently a very different type of movie than her quieter debut drama.

Stay Cool. The Polish Brothers (Northfork) return with a "charming comedy" about a high school reunion of sorts, with Winona Ryder and Hilary Duff. Manure was sharply criticized at Sundance just a couple of months ago; could Stay Cool possibly be any good? Winona Ryder doesn't get seen enough, and Hilary Duff has made interesting choices, so this could be surprisingly good -- or another train wreck.

Outrage. Documentarian Kirby Dick, who made the terrific This Film is Not Yet Rated, turns to the subject of "the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who actively campaign against the LGBT community they covertly belong to." I'm hoping it's as sensational as it sounds.

After the jump: The complete announcement. Browse away, and tell us what looks good to you!