Feature: Indie nominee is tough stuff

LOS ANGELES, March 21 (UPI) -- The competition is as tough as ever this year for the IFP Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, to be presented Saturday in Santa Monica.

Most observers expect Michael Moore's examination of America's gun culture, "Bowling for Columbine," to win. They'll get no argument from Steve James, one of the other four nominees for "Stevie" -- his disturbing account of the troubled life of Stevie Fielding.

"I don't think we're going win," said James. "I have a hard time believing that "Bowling for Columbine" isn't going to win. It just seems so right for this award and what's going on in the country."

James has first-hand experience with the vagaries of the movie awards season. His 1994 documentary "Hoop Dreams" -- the story of two young basketball prospects trying to hit the big time -- was named best documentary by the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics. Fans of the film were severely let down when it was overlooked for an Oscar nomination.

"Stevie" was filmed in 1995, when James returned to rural southern Illinois to reconnect with Fielding. James had been Fielding's "Advocate Big Brother" in the '80s, and wanted to see how Fielding had been doing in the meantime.

The answer: Not well.

The film is difficult to watch. It presents Fielding as a man who was abused virtually all of his life -- and has become an abusive and destructive adult who ends up going to the state penitentiary for molesting an 8-year-old girl.

In an interview with United Press International, James conceded that Fielding and his family and friends could easily be dismissed as the kinds of people who routinely show up on "The Jerry Springer Show." But people who have seen "Stevie" tell him the experience is more like reading "an intense novel" about a family.

"It makes them think about people in their own lives who were lost souls that they failed to reach or failed to try to reach," said James. "It makes them think about their own family."

James -- who is onscreen for much of the film -- has struggled with questions of his responsibility for the way Fielding's life has turned out. He concludes the film with a determination to always "be there" for Fielding.

"I'm not prepared to give up on Stevie," said James. "I have to keep hoping. In some modest way I owe it to him and to myself to be a part of it. I don't know how. I'm not going to invite him to move in with me when he gets out, but I will not lose touch with him. I think the most important thing I can do is be there and play some kind of role."

The other nominees for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary are: "The Cockettes" by Bill Weber and David Weissman -- an account of the San Francisco performance group that turned a penchant for androgyny into a pop culture phenomenon in the early 1970s; "Devil's Playground" by Lucy Walker -- which follows Amish teenagers as they encounter the modern world in a rite of passage; and "How to Draw a Bunny" by John W. Walter -- a portrait of New York artist Ray Johnson.

"Lovely & Amazing," a comedy about the relationship between a mother and her three daughters, leads the field with six nominations at the Independent Spirit Awards. "Far from Heaven," a drama that simultaneously pays tribute to '50s U.S. films while examining frank themes in a contemporary way, has the second most nominations with five.

"The Good Girl," "ivans xtc." and "Tully" had four nominations each.

The nominees for best feature are: "Far from Heaven," "The Good Girl," "Lovely & Amazing" and "Secretary."

The Independent Spirit Awards ceremonies Saturday are to be televised live on the Independent Film Channel. Filmmaker John Waters is scheduled to return for a third straight year as emcee.