"One of the pleasures of the fetish scene is you don't have to be beautiful to be a narcissist," says New York photographer and filmmaker Tom Chomont. "All of the ugly kids from high school can have their day in the spotlight." It's hard to believe that Chomont was ever one of the ugly kids, but he certainly gets his day in the spotlight in this avant-garde documentary by Mike Hoolboom (Panic Bodies, House of Pain).

In Tom, Chomont's life unfurls in a style as unique as his own story. Found footage and archival film (including a fascinating survey of New York City over the years), home movies, photos and new video "stream past in a hypnot­ic rush," says Hoolboom, "offering a subject whose skin is cinema, whose flesh and blood have been remade into the picture plane." Add in Chomont's recollections of infanticide, a mob­ster's love, sex with his own brother, S&M, fetishism, visions of a white light that illuminates both the beginning and end of life, and excerpts from some of his own films — from 1968's Phases of the Moon to 90s films such as Sadistic Self Portrait and Head Shot — and Tom evolves into a deeply emotional portrait of a lifelong outlaw now battling both HIV and Parkinson's disease.

This is a film that evokes as much as it depicts, and alludes as much as it describes. Hoolboom calls it "cinema as déjà vu, or déjà voodoo." We call it one of the most spellbinding and unforgettable films in this year's festival.