''Audience of One'' is a 2007

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by Michael Jacobs. It was premiered on 9 March 2007 at South by Southwest in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Overview

The film follows the story of a San Francisco Pentecostal minister Richard Gazowsky on his quest to shoot a groundbreaking fantasy film called '' Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph'' (described by him as " Star Wars meets The Ten Commandments"). The film follows him and members of his church as they go through preproduction and fly to

Alberobello Alberobello (; literally "beautiful tree"; Barese: ) is a small town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. It has 10,735 inhabitants and is famous for its unique '' trullo'' buildings. The ''trulli'' of Alberob ...

, Italy, for initial shooting that turns out to be marred with difficulties. After returning home, Gazowsky manages to arrange a lease of the Treasure Island film studio, but as their promised financing from German investors never materializes, they get evicted and eventually sued by the city of San Francisco for not paying their rent.

Awards

* ''2007 South by Southwest Film Festival'' - Special Jury Award * ''2007 Silverdocs Film Festival'' - Beyond Belief Award * ''2007 San Francisco DocFest'' - Audience Award * ''2007 BendFilm Festival'' - Special Jury Prize for Documentary * ''2008 ZagrebDox Film Festival'' - International Critics' Jury Award * ''2008 ZagrebDoX Film Festival'' - ''Mali pečat'' for Best Young Director

Film festivals

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is an annual non-fiction film festival held in Missoula, Montana each February. The event showcases documentary films from around the world. The festival first began in 2003 as a seven-day event. It is now a ten- ...

2008 (Missoula, United States) # Salem Film Festival 2008 (Mass., USA) # True/False Film Festival 2008 (Columbia, United States) #

Camden International Film Festival The Camden International Film Festival, stylized as CIFF, is an annual documentary film festival based in Camden, Rockport, and Rockland, Maine, in the United States that takes place on the last weekend in September. Created in 2005 by Benjamin ...

2007 (Camden, United States) #

Denver International Film Festival The Denver Film Festival is held in November, primarily at the Denver Film Center/Colfax, in Denver, Colorado, now the Anna and John J. Sie FilmCenter (Sie FilmCenter). Premiere events are held in the Buell Theatre and Ellie Caulkins Opera House ...

2007 (Denver, United States) #

Independent Film Festival of Boston The Independent Film Festival Boston is a not for profit film festival in Boston, Massachusetts. History The Independent Film Festival Boston (also known as IFFBoston or IFFB) was created in 2003 by the non-profit organization the Independent ...

2007 (Boston, United States) #

Leeds International Film Festival The Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) is the largest film festival in England outside London. Founded in 1987, it is held in November at various venues throughout Leeds, West Yorkshire. In 2015, the festival welcomed over 40,000 visitor ...

2007 (Leeds, United Kingdom) #

New Directors/New Films Festival The New Directors/New Films Festival is an annual film festival held in New York City, and organized jointly by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Film at Lincoln Center, previously known as the Film Society o ...

2007 (New York City, United States) #

New Zealand International Film Festival New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

2007 (New Zealand) #

Newport International Film Festival Newport International Film Festival was an annual film festival in Newport, Rhode Island, established in 1998. The Newport Film Festival was generally held the first week in June and featured various international films at several local cinemas. ...

2007 (Newport, United States) #

Toronto After Dark Film Festival Toronto After Dark Film Festival is a showcase of horror, sci-fi, action and cult cinema held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival premieres a diverse selection of feature-length and short-films from around the world including n ...

2007 (Toronto, Canada)

Critical reception

James Rocchi of ''Cinematical'' called the film "a fascinating documentary -- unblinking but not inhuman, sympathetic but never afraid to ask questions", and described Richard Gazowsky, the film's blustery yet relatable protagonist, as "a natural showman", stating that while "It's easy to see a sprinkling of Ed Wood-style mania in Gazowsky...he's also in service of a higher idea." In the ''Austin American-Statesman'', Chris Garcia agreed, describing Gazowsky as "a sanguine if irresponsible Quixote who enlists our goodwill" while also lauding director Michael Jacobs' treatment of his subject as "ceaselessly engaging, scrupulously nonjudgmental". ''The Boston Globes

Wesley Morris Wesley Morris (born 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previously, Mor ...

likened Gazowsky's struggle to that of other infamous cinematic iconoclasts, stating that "as he azowskyseems to swell past Felliniesque portliness to Wellesian girth, he makes a comical and complex example of the conflict of religious devotion." Critic Ronnie Scheib of ''Variety'' praised the documentary's intimacy, the way that Jacobs "sticks close to his subjects, eschewing disdainful distance from their cinematic pipe dreams" and the ''Village Voices J. Hoberman noted that the film was a "festival favorite throughout the US". The film's humor has been compared to film-making-gone-awry classics such as ''

Lost in La Mancha ''Lost in La Mancha'' is a 2002 documentary film about Terry Gilliam's first attempt to make ''The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'', a film adaptation of the 1605/1615 novel ''Don Quixote'' by Miguel de Cervantes. The documentary was shot in 2000 d ...

'' and ''

American Movie ''American Movie'' is a 1999 American documentary film directed by Chris Smith, produced by Smith and Sarah Price, and edited by Jun Diaz and Barry Poltermann. The film chronicles the making of '' Coven'', an independent short horror film dir ...

'', while others have cited comparisons with the searching investigations of obsession in the films of

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with u ...

as well as

Errol Morris Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamar ...

' idiosyncratic character studies. V.A. Musetto of the ''New York Post'' summed the film up by simply stating that "Somewhere above us, God is Watching 'Audience of One' and chuckling. Mere mortals will be doing likewise."

References

External links

Official website

Indiepix website
* *
''Audience of One''
at MySpace
''Daily Variety'' review

''SF Weekly'' article on Gazowsky

''WYSIWYG'' (Gazowsky's production company) official blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Audience Of One (Film) 2007 films American documentary films Documentary films about Christianity in the United States 2007 documentary films Documentary films about the film industry 2000s English-language films 2000s American films