Ten years ago, Pastor Richard Gazowsky of the Voice of Pentecost Church in San Francisco received a call from the Lord to make movies. Four years ago, up-and-coming director Michael Jacobs began recording the daily reality of Gazowsky, his church/film studio, and their quest to make a multimillion dollar epic movie. Last year, Jacobs' resulting documentary, Audience of One, premiered at the South By Southwest Film Festival and took home a Special Jury Prize. And nearly a year later, as the film finishes its tour of movie screens across the country and prepares to make its DVD debut, Audience of One continues to provoke laughter, thought, and intriguing dialogue about faith, filmmaking, and where exactly the lines lie between passion, faith, and absolute lunacy.

While in San Francisco for the release of the movie, Jacobs sat down with me to talk about the film, his experience making it, his relationship with the man at its center, and his own thoughts on some of the very questions the film raises.

HollywoodJesus: Well, it's been just over a year since Audience of One premiered at South by Southwest and started making its way around the country. What has that year been like for you?

Michael Jacobs: It's been far more work than making the film, a lot more work than making the film&ellips; All of sudden, people want to hear from me, especially in this case. So many people are curious about my experience because it is such an odd and bizarre world. People want to know what was going on for me at the time, especially because I was so adamant about trying to remain as objective as possible. People really want to hear my experiences because they're sort of left to feel on their own&ellips; It's exhausting&ellips; but it also feels amazing to connect with audiences, and it feels great that people are curious about your process.

HJ: Anything that has surprised you about how audiences are receiving the film?

MJ: I think I was surprised initially just with how many people sort of got what I was trying to do. You know, I didn't know if that would be like five percent of my audience or like eighty percent of my audience, and it's been much closer to like eighty percent of people. Even if they don't like my film, they kind of get what I was doing. That's, I guess, one of the greatest concerns of being a filmmaker, not being understood. That was my greatest fear, that here I am making this film, and what if nobody gets it? So I think what was so pleasantly surprising about the last year or so is that people got it and were enjoying it, or at least understood what I was trying to do and were writing about it in a way that was true. There are, of course, certain times when I'll read a review or a note or something, and it's like, "Whoa, I never even thought of that." But by and large, it felt really pleasantly surprising. I think just the overall acceptance of the film, from your average audience-goer to people within the entertainment industry appreciating and enjoying the film and understanding it, that completely exceeded my expectations.

Continue: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9