Knot gonna take it.

Tying the Knot * Directed by Jim de Seve * Roadside Attractions

Jim de Seve's documentary Tying the Knot opens with a vintage act of bravery: a 1971 demonstration in an unnamed New York City clerk's office by the newly formed Gay Activists Alliance in response to the clerk's threat to sue local churches that performed gay unions. Group cofounder Arthur Evans can be seen announcing, "We are here demanding retraction of this slander, demanding [the clerk] represent gay people who pay his taxes. And we are not going to take no for an answer from anybody!"

Cut, to contemporary horror stories of lesbian and gay couples struggling through circumstances related to rile rights of surviving spouses--Mickie Mashburn, widow of fallen lesbian police officer Lois Marrero, and her court petition to receive her partner's benefits; an Oklahoma farmer facing the seizure of the home he shared with his own late partner--and the real face of what's at stake with the fight for same-sex marriage comes into sharp focus, with an emphasis on urgency in the face of unprecedented attacks.

Traditional in form, peppered with commentary from academics, lawmakers, and religious conservatives, Knot makes up in sincerity what it lacks in style and rides the line between preaching to the choir and making a coherent case for the uninformed. This rally-the-troops movie's real power, though, lies in the stories of the people affected by discrimination, their own bravery in the face of unbending laws, and their unwillingness to take no for an answer. From anybody.