Audience of One
Making a movie about making a movie for God
Tags: Audience of One Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Aug 27th, 2009
Audience of One is proof that just because a righteous mission is at hand, without proper planning and actual execution, nothing will come about. A grand vision by pastor Richard Gazowsky simply fails to become reality for a number of reasons, but mostly hubris a we watch the production of his film slip further and further away from being completed.
After receiving a vision from God, Gazowsky attempts to create a biblical science fiction film. This in itself is fine, and could be the subject of examination, but it isn’t. Michael Jacobs who directed the documentary instead completely sidesteps the issue of faith and religion, and instead focuses solely on the process of filmmaking the pastor and his congregation are attempting.
What makes this documentary work so well is the fact that Jacobs does focus solely on this one thing these people are trying to do. While they have no experience in making a film, it has been done before in similar manner by some noted people in the film industry even. It is the lack of proper execution on Gazousky’s part, such as holding auditions long after principal photography was to have been complete, that ultimately brings the whole affair to its lack of conclusion.
This documentary, however, makes no judgment on the man either in his belief of God or his decision to keep going on with the project. As things spiral further and further out of control, the vision keeps getting bigger and bigger. Jacobs takes a “fly on the wall” approach simply recording the proceedings for posterity.
As a look at how not to get a film made, Audience of One does a fantastic job. It shows how things can simply go wrong because of a variety of factors, and how even in the face of adversity, blind faith is not necessarily the best tool. There can be a spiritual message pulled out of Audience of One, in that God may have planted a seed, but it doesn’t grow on its own. This was a fascinating look at filmmaking that certainly deserves to be looked at by fans of film.
The DVD comes with a few special features, which really round out and complete the film. First off we get the two completed shots from Gazowsky’s production. Then we get a few deleted scenes, which could have been placed back in or not. Then we get a song written by Gazursky in audio form. The real centerpiece, however, is the audio commentary where Jacobs talks about how he fell into making the documentary, how he was welcomed, the sense of frustration that he felt as things didn’t progress, the unease as time went on, and lots more.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a perfect documentary. The biggest problem really centers on the lack of cohesive narrative or timeline. Even if dates had been used to delineate the passage of time the viewer would get much more of a sense of the scale Gazowsky’s project is. Still, Audience of One really demands the audience to put aside their willingness to skewer blind faith in God and simply watch as a project spins further and further out of control.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Interesting subject + Good commentary |
8.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
| - No sense of time | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| A fascinating look at moviemaking, or religion, or both. Take your pick. | |
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Tags: Audience of One
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Aug 27th, 2009 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
