AFS Documentary Tour: Audience of One

With the faith of a thousand men, Pastor Richard Gazowsky set out ten years ago on a divine mission: to make the greatest film ever made. Nevermind that the first film he ever saw was The Lion King, at the tender age of 40. Nevermind that he had absolutely no background in directing, editing, or producing an epic so grand that its concept was enthusiastically described as "The Ten Commandments meets Star Wars." Nevermind that his only solid source of funding was the generous tithes of his congregation at the Voice of Pentecost Church. If your God instructs you to make a blockbuster science fiction movie, who are you to question their will, right?

Wednesday night the Austin Film Society and their Documentary Film Tour present the 2007 SXSW Special Jury Award winner Audience of One, Director Michael Jacobs' chronicle of what it is like to make a film with nothing backing you but blind faith and naiive devotion.

After completing a couple of smaller film projects that were also ordained by God—a Christian musical called Guardians and an hour long drama called The Roman Trilogy, both yet to be released—Gazowsky decided to plunge head first into the dizzying pool of feature length filmmaking. He believed that mass media was the only avenue through which he could effectively reach the public with his sincere message of hope. A self proclaimed "un-preachy" Pentacostal, who believes that there is indeed a fine line between sanity and insanity, Gazowsky fully admits that he could be crazy, and we aren't sure that we ever need to see the finished movie to make our determination. But if nothing else, we somehow envy his passion and reckless abandon to follow what his heart leads him to do, regardless of what anyone, besides God, of course, has to say.