Audience of One

Ten years ago, I was praying on a mountaintop. The Lord spoke to me like out of the blue. You will start a film company. I want you to be the Rolls-Royce of filmmaking. Better than anyone in the world. -Richard Gazowsky, Audience of One

My name is Sarah and I am a documentary filmmaker, excuse me, I am a Christian documentary filmmaker.

I still remember very distinctly my first year of graduate school. Somewhere in the first week a professor challenged us to begin to call ourselves documentary filmmakers. I had produced several documentaries prior to my arrival, but had never considered myself a filmmaker. It took me weeks to finally begin and see myself in this new light and years to really own the title. I like the saying "your not a filmmaker until someone tells you your a filmmaker." There are too many people running around and calling themselves filmmakers. Everyone with access to a camcorder is not a filmmaker. It is a craft to be honed and requires community acceptance though the validation of your work. I don't run around calling myself a plumber because I know what a pipe looks like.

In the same manner, there are too many people who consider themselves Christian filmmakers. I never wanted to be a "Christian" filmmaker. I simply wanted to be a Christian who made films. I actually remember praying to God saying please don't make me be the girl who makes Christian films. It is with a lot of resistance that I have arrived here. Frankly, I am afraid of the title, afraid that it will box me in. Christians will judge me on the holiness of my film and non-Christians will never take my work seriously. There is no doubt that my film are Christian. They revolve around Christian topics and themes, but I never set out to do that. God led me there.

All of this leads me to the film I watched today, a documentary by Mike Jacobs entitled Audience of One. The film focuses on the Voice of Pentecost Church in San Fransisco lead by Pastor Richard Gazowsky. Gazowsky saw his first film at the age of 40. Shortly there after, he claims to have recieved a vision from God that convinced him to start a film production company. WYSIWYG Imageworks is the manifestation of that vision. The film chronicles their journey to create a high quality film. Faced with the pitfalls of production, their budget grows from $100,000 to $50 million to $100 million to currently $200 million.

It is people like Richard Gazowsky that make life harder. I feel like I have to apologize for their actions. I find myself having to explaining, "yes, I am a Christian, but I do not condone that action." I already have a strike against me.

I truly believe people can be compelled by God. But there is a line. When asked if Christians should pay their taxes, Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s." (Mark 12:17) Not paying rent on a building for months, but purchasing high end production equipment is not a Christian thing to do. Draining your churches resources and promising future investors that never show is fraud. There is no way around that.

If I had half the money and equipment they have invested, I would be turning out films left and right. Currently, I average a film a year on a meager budget. My films aren't the next Avatar, but they are award winning stories. The only completed film (I am aware of) Mr. Gazowsky has been a part of is the documentary (which he merely starred in). (On a side note: I would be glad to watch any films he has completed. I tried to find a DVD to purchase and was unsuccessful.) So, thank you for giving Christian filmmakers one more mountain to climb and one more battle to fight. This is why the truly dedicated among us gets so easily discouraged. Please stop trying to do things yourself and dedicated your resources to someone who knows what they are doing.

Overall, the documentary is well produced. There was a little blurb about how the church is perceived by the community, but I personally wanted to hear more of the story from a point of view outside of the church members. It was obvious to me about half way through the film that the churches plans were too grand and I wanted to know what members of the community thought about the situation. I also wanted to see the two scenes from his movie that were shot and know more about what happened after the Italy shoot. On a scale from one to five, I give the film a three. The cinematography was not spectacular and I found the storyline lacking diversity. Plus, the whole subject unnerved me, thus the long soap box blog.

Rating: Not Rated

Stars: 3/5

Language: None