Documentarians Take On Religious Activism at Tribeca Film Festival

Religious faith goes to extremes at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, as documentaries introduce spiritual leaders whose activism has made them lightning rods of controversy.

The subjects range from the Pakistani cleric Abdul Aziz Ghazi (in “Among the Believers”), whose Islamabad-based Red Mosque indoctrinates Pakistani children in jihad, to the American evangelical minister Rob Schenck, a fervent antiabortion activist whose gun-control leanings threaten his ties with the Christian right in “The Armor of Light.”

Despite the hot-button nature of their material, the filmmakers strive to keep their tone evenhanded.