Variety

New Directors/New Films

March 21, 2007

By Ronnie Scheib

Audience of One

(Documentary)

A Revolve production. Produced by Michael Jacobs, Zach Sanders, Matt Woods.
Executive producers, Gary Jacobs, Randy Woods. Directed by Michael Jacobs.

With: Richard Gazowsky.

In Michael Jacobs' feature docu debut, a San Francisco Pentecostal minister,
having received a vision from God, leads his small flock to make a sci-fi
biblical epic titled "Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph." While the
film-within-a-film, modestly described by its divinely appointed director as
" 'Star Wars' meets 'The Ten Commandments,' " promises all manner of
absurdities, it's the uncertainty-plagued process of the indie production
itself that Jacobs' film explores. Fascinating docu, jury prize winner at
South by Southwest, could catch on theatrically.

Pastor Richard Gazowsky comes across as affable, energetic and blindingly
sincere ("He's a sweet man, very naive and gentle," opines his mother,
increasingly doubtful about having handed the church she founded over to her
son). He saw his first movie at age 40. A year later, he says, God told him
to make a film and, at docu's opening, he is bound and determined to produce
a Hollywood-quality epic -- preferably the greatest picture ever made.

Contributions from parishioners, unnamed donors and the sale of Richard's
house cover initial production costs. Soon the church "family," including
several actual relatives (a co-scripter wife, an art-director daughter, a
soundman son, a gaffer son, etc.), plus unpaid volunteers solicited through
newspaper ads, are busy constructing, painting and sewing what turns out to
be rather professional-looking props and costumes, in preparation for a
five-day shoot in Italy.

The town of Alberobello provides an even greater surprise. A truly inspired
choice for a movie set, the burg boasts a stunning array of dazzling-white,
perfectly conical black-topped dwellings dating back to the Middle Ages.
Chaotic design elements miraculously come together with the aid of local
craftsmen. Villagers, looking quite authentic in their quaint sci-fi
biblical garb, perform flawlessly in rehearsal.

Then Murphy's Law kicks in with a vengeance.

Cable wires snap under the weight of 70mm equipment, film jams in the camera
and the shoot grinds to a halt. As rent and unpaid bills mount, Gazowsky
fervently invokes a promised $200 million German investment that never
materializes.

To a certain extent, Jacobs tonally likens "Gravity" to any other greenhorn
production, only with hymns and prayers replacing more secular pep talks.
Similarly, the process of reconciling divine will with recalcitrant reality
reads as an extreme version of any filmmaker's egomaniacal struggle to
maintain faith in his vision. (Gazowsky splits with his cameraman,
plaintively explaining, "I know he can do a better job than I can, but God
wants me to direct.")

But once the project disintegrates, Gazowsky veers off into more
recognizably pathological territory, his insistence on making reality
conform to his Heaven-sent mandate echoing a larger political context.

Jacobs sticks close to his subjects, eschewing disdainful distance from
their cinematic pipe dreams, his unobtrusively high-level lensing doing
Gazowsky's efforts proud.

Camera (color, DV), Michael Jacobs; editor, Kyle Henry; music, Jeff Forrest;
music supervisor, Brooke Wentz, David Wurzburg; art director, Alex Lyman;
sound, Sarah Woods, Nikolas Zasimczuk; sound designer, Dave Nelson;
associate producer, Alec Farbman. Reviewed at New Directors/New Films, New
York, March 16, 2007. (Also in South by Southwest Film Festival.) Running
time: 88 MIN.