In the Mormon Church members are occasionally called upon to give their "testimony," a statement of faith, personal history and gratitude. Suffice to say, most testimonies don't include recollections of the seminal New York glam-punk scene, boozy nose dives out of hotel windows and a moment of religious revelation that the testifier describes as "an LSD trip from the Lord."

Then again, Arthur "Killer" Kane — who died last year of leukemia — was no ordinary Mormon.

In "New York Doll," documentary filmmaker Greg Whiteley captures Kane's extraordinary journey of faith, and it makes for a wonderful show — a wistful, enlightening epic of human failing and triumph.

Renowned (somewhat ironically for his workmanlike bass lines and lurchy stage presence as a founding member of The New York Dolls, Kane hit a rough patch after the group disbanded in the late ’70s: Alcoholism, unemployment, degradation — typical "Behind the Music" stuff.

Finally, in 1989, Kane saw the light. Penniless and desperate, holed up in a Hollywood fleabag, the fallen glam-god sent away for a free Book of Mormon and quickly embraced the faith's tenets of redemption and temperance. Goodbye, LSD. Hello, LDS. When Whiteley catches up with Kane, the one-time Dolls bassist is middle-aged, balding and doing part-time clerical work at the church's Family Research Center in Los Angeles.

A droll, reserved man who looks a bit like British actor Bill Nighy (“Love Actually”), Kane often starts sentences with the folksy preamble "Tell the truth," as in, "Tell the truth, this place makes my apartment look rinky-dink."

Kane is also jazzed about a Dolls reunion performance in London hosted by former Smiths frontman Morrissey. It will be an opportunity for Kane to put aside his long-simmering feud with Dolls lead singer David Johansen (whose alter ego, Buster Poindexter, achieved some of the fame Kane always craved) and get right with his past.

With the help of Kane's church friends and such rock luminaries as Iggy Pop and Chrissie Hynde, director Whiteley reveals a dependent soul, but one who finds wisdom and peace poised between two strikingly different worlds.

Tell the truth, it's a testimony you'll never forget.