Huge lines wound around the AFI Silver Theatre on the Closing Night of SILVERDOCS with people — old, young, black, white, east and west of the river — all pondering the same general question.

Just who is Marion Barry?

No, I mean, really: besides the Mayor-For-Life, the City Councilman, the man who coined “bitch set me up” for a generation of cheap laughs, the dashiki-clad firebrand, the convicted felon, the so-called “moral politician,” the addict, the civil rights hero, the Washingtonian symbol for better and worse, the tax evader, the kidney transplant recipient, the man who’s seemingly never lost an election in which he was running and the general larger-than-life symbol that he is.

Between all that, just who is Marion Barry?

That existential question is the driving force behind Dana Flor and Toby Oppenheimer’s The Nine Lives Of Marion Barry, the world premiere of which closed another successful SILVERDOCS festival on Saturday evening. Flor and Oppenheimer are two D.C. natives who, like most of us, found themselves inseparably attracted to the moves of Mr. Barry, regardless of how deplorable some find his faults to be.

“We wanted to explore what made [Barry] such a fascinating story,” said Oppenheimer after the screening.

Well, if anything, his proclivity for being in the public eye doesn’t hurt. Despite his ongoing health concerns, Barry confidently strutted the press line, greeting and kissing numerous people, saying hello to local figures in attendance like former Councilwoman Carol Schwartz — and in true Barry style, posting next to the marquee poster with that smug look we all know so well.