By Gregg Shapiro

Contributing writer

“Kurt Cobain: About A Son”—AJ Schnack’s non-traditional documentary about non-traditional rock star Kurt Cobain is informative and effective.

Based on interviews that music journalist Michael Azerrad conducted with Cobain while researching his book “Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana,” we get to hear Cobain’s story in his own words. Of course, the interviews were audio-taped, so a majority of the visual components of the film are comprised of images of the locales (Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle, Washington), the local people who populate the cities and towns, still photographs from clubs and concerts and more.

Nirvana band-members Chris (a.k.a. Krist) Novoselic and Dave Grohl appear in still photos, as does Cobain’s widow Courtney Love. As for the subject himself, his visage serves as more of a coda to the movie. The real essence and energy comes from Cobain’s voice describing his early years. Feeling like an “alien baby” adopted by humans, he had what he described as a happy childhood, with a loving and supportive mother and physically abusive father, until he turned eight. At nine, when he became manic-depressive, Cobain took refuge in music, running down the battery in his father’s van while listening to an 8-track of Queen’s “New of the World,” for example. Even as his world crumbled when his parents divorced, music was a source of comfort and also an outlet for creative expression. The combination of constant physical pain, from scoliosis and ongoing stomach issues, also figured in his personal development, leading him to drug experimentation and use.

Cobain’s outsider status was probably cemented as early as high school, when he befriended a gay classmate, leading others to assume that he was also gay, which led to getting beaten up regularly. Cobain said that he was “proud of being gay,” even though he wasn’t. From there we follow him on his course to becoming a “certified self-proclaimed punk rocker” in the “Peyton Place utopia” of Olympia. Then it was on to Seattle, and of course, superstardom. The sad but true end of the story makes all of this, in Cobain’s own voice, all the more tragic.

Limited runs

Mae West’s first starring vehicle, “She Done Him Wrong,” in which she plays Lady Lou, the queen of a Gay Nineties Bowery saloon who collects diamonds and men (including mysterious missionary Cary Grant) with equal aplomb, plays Jan. 11 at 6:15 p.m. and Jan. 14 at 7:45 p.m. at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State.

The Chicago premiere of Murray Lerner’s “The Other Side Of The Mirror: Bob Dylan Live At The Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1965” takes place Jan. 11-17 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State.

The Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, presents the Chicago premiere of “Billy The Kid” Jan. 11 at 7:45 p.m.

The Dyke Delicious—Season Five Series at Chicago Filmmakers, 5243 N. Clark, presents a screening of “I, Doll: The Unauthorized Biography of America’s 11 1/2" Sweetheart,” beginning with a 7 p.m. social hour and an 8 p.m. showing on Jan. 12.

Celebrated openly gay painter, writer and film director Clive Barker appears at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport, on Jan. 12 to introduce the midnight screening of his 1987 horror classic “Hellraiser.” Call (773) 871-6604.

The Chicago premiere of “Havana: The New Art Of Making Ruins (Habana: Arte Nuevo De Hacer Ruinas)” takes place Jan. 13 at 5:30 p.m. and Jan. 17 at 6 p.m. at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State.