What makes a great artist? Pain? Loss? Love? Hope? Sadness? Or the resilience to celebrate life in the face of death? This is the defining question for music documentaries, but few stories have answers that match the magnitude of such inquiries.

Enter Beautiful Jim, from the Southern Documentary Project and Rex Jones—a film that tells the inspirational history of Jimbeau Hinson, the Grammy-nominated musician who was country music’s first openly bisexual singer/songwriter. Jimbeau’s struggle with identity, depression, love, and HIV-related health complications shows not the falling of a star, but the re-rising of one of the country’s most colorful characters. Jim’s amicability and laugh make you fall in love with his story.

Jones does something amazing, yet simple, with the film: He sits a camera down in front of an interesting subject and pulls some of the best yarns one could hope to spin. Hinson’s love—not just for his ultra-supportive wife but for humanity as a whole—is palpable and sincere with every joke and gesture, despite the ignorance and bigotry that clouded the earlier days of music. The film is an endearing emotional prism that redefines country music by offering deeper context to the man behind the lyrics. Recommended for any viewer that needs to be uplifted.

I didn’t cry during this screening. I just had something in both eyes.