Serj Tankian is sort of a renaissance man. He’s a lyricist, musician, and singer in the immensely popular hard rock band System of a Down. He’s also the subject of Garin Hovannisian’s documentary Truth to Power, which chronicles Tankian’s political awakening and activism and the impact he has had in having more people recognize the Armenian genocide that occurred during World War I.

Tankian’s grandfather, Stepan Haytayan, survived a massacre by the Turks that took the lives of his parents, and he ended up in an orphanage in Lebanon, the country where Tankian was born. When things started going south there during its civil war, the Tankians immigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles. Here, Tankian was immersed in both Armenian and American culture. (Interestingly, while a lot of second-generation immigrant stories focus on dislocation and alienation, he seems completely comfortable in both worlds.) His grandfather made him promise at a very young age to remember the genocide and make more people aware of it as well. In this Tankian did not disappoint.

If you are a fan of his music, this film won’t dissatisfy. There’s plenty of it as well as a brief history of System of a Down’s formation. If you are a fan of the band, Truth to Power is essential. If you are into political activism, you will find a kindred spirit. As a documentary, it’s pretty good, if a bit hagiographic. Essentially, you get 100 percent Tankian, 100 percent of the time, and he is certainly a charismatic and genial individual.

Yet in the interviews and the day-in-the-life sections of the documentary, Tankian barely cracks a smile, but when he’s on tour, all you see is him busting up. His lyrics, even in the band’s more somber songs, are playful and more than occasionally humorous. Yet this side never comes off on screen, which makes the film a tiny bit like a chore.

That being said, there is poignancy in Tankian’s struggles, and Hovannisian bears down on this. This is an activist who feels compelled to speak out on truth and justice in no uncertain terms, which occasionally puts him at odds with his bandmates, who accurately state that only a few of their songs are overtly political. What we witness is an artist becoming more and more comfortable using his art as a platform, while the movie makes the argument many times that activism is personal. As Tankian says, recognizing one form of genocide forces you to recognize all of its forms.

Truth to Power is certainly informative and inspiring, and Tankian is without doubt a worthy subject. I just wish we had a fuller picture of the man. The focus is torn between portraying an artist and a movement, while the theme of the documentary is, somewhat ironically, about the reconciliation of the artist and a movement.