Audience of One (film)

Last updated

Audience of One
Audience Of One poster.jpg
Promotional poster
Directed byMichael Jacobs
Produced byAlec Farbman
Gary Jacobs
Randy Woods
Michael Jacobs
Zack Sanders
Matthew Woods
StarringRichard Gazowsky
CinematographyJim Granato
Michael Jacobs
Edited by Kyle Henry
Music byJeff Forrest
Distributed byRevolve Productions, IndiePix Films
Release date
  • March 9, 2007 (2007-03-09)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Audience of One is a 2007 documentary film directed by Michael Jacobs. It was premiered on 9 March 2007 at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.

Contents

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, 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

Film festivals

  1. Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 2008 (Missoula, United States)
  2. Salem Film Festival 2008 (Mass., USA)
  3. True/False Film Festival 2008 (Columbia, United States)
  4. Camden International Film Festival 2007 (Camden, United States)
  5. Denver International Film Festival 2007 (Denver, United States)
  6. Independent Film Festival of Boston 2007 (Boston, United States)
  7. Leeds International Film Festival 2007 (Leeds, United Kingdom)
  8. New Directors/New Films Festival 2007 (New York City, United States)
  9. New Zealand International Film Festival 2007 (New Zealand)
  10. Newport International Film Festival 2007 (Newport, United States)
  11. Toronto After Dark Film Festival 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." [1] 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". [2] The Boston Globe's Wesley Morris likened Gazowsky's struggle to that of other infamous cinematic iconoclasts, stating that "as he [Gazowsky] seems to swell past Felliniesque portliness to Wellesian girth, he makes a comical and complex example of the conflict of religious devotion." [3]

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 Voice's J. Hoberman noted that the film was a "festival favorite throughout the US". [4] [5]

The film's humor has been compared to film-making-gone-awry classics such as Lost in La Mancha and American Movie , while others have cited comparisons with the searching investigations of obsession in the films of Werner Herzog as well as Errol Morris' 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." [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story</i> 2006 Japanese film

Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story is an American documentary about Megumi Yokota, a Japanese student who was abducted by a North Korean agent in 1977.

<i>Darwins Nightmare</i> 2004 film

Darwin's Nightmare is a 2004 Austrian-French-Belgian documentary film written and directed by Hubert Sauper, dealing with the environmental and social effects of the fishing industry around Lake Victoria in Tanzania. It premiered at the 2004 Venice Film Festival, and was nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 78th Academy Awards. The Boston Globe called it "the year's best documentary about the animal world."

Maryam Keshavarz is an American filmmaker(Iranian pedigreed) best known for her 2011 film Circumstance distributed by Participant Media and Roadside Attractions, which won the Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival.

<i>Vanaja</i> (film) 2006 Indian film

Vanaja is a 2006 Telugu-language drama film written and directed by Rajnesh Domalpalli on a story that constituted his Master of Fine Arts thesis at Columbia University. The film was made on a shoestring budget using a cast of non-professional first-timers for two and a half months.

<i>Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing</i> 2006 American film by Cecilia Peck, Barbara Kopple

Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing is a 2006 American documentary film produced and directed by Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck.

<i>Paper Dolls</i> (film) 2006 Israeli film

Paper Dolls is a 2006 documentary by Israeli director Tomer Heymann, which follows the lives of transgender migrant workers from the Philippines who work as health care providers for elderly Orthodox Jewish men and perform as drag queens during their spare time. It also delves into the lives of societal outcasts who search for freedom and acceptance.

<i>Crazy Love</i> (2007 film) 2007 American film

Crazy Love is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens. The screenplay by Klores explores the troubled relationship between New York City attorney Burt Pugach and his ten-years-younger girlfriend Linda Riss, who was blinded and permanently scarred when thugs hired by Pugach threw lye in her face.

<i>War/Dance</i> 2007 film by Sean Fine

War/Dance is a 2007 American documentary film written and directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine and produced by Shine Global's Susan MacLaury, a professor at Kean University, and Albie Hecht. It was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and received the Emmy Awards for Best Documentary and Best Cinematography in 2010.

<i>Man on Wire</i> 2008 documentary film directed by James Marsh

Man on Wire is a 2008 documentary film directed by James Marsh. The film chronicles Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center. It is based on Petit's 2002 book, To Reach the Clouds, released in paperback with the title Man on Wire. The title of the film is taken from the police report that led to the arrest of Petit, whose performance lasted for almost an hour. The film is crafted like a heist film, presenting rare footage of the preparations for the event and still photographs of the walk, alongside re-enactments and present-day interviews with the participants, including Barry Greenhouse, an insurance executive who served as the inside man.

ZagrebDox

ZagrebDox is an international documentary film festival taking place in Zagreb every year, in late February / early March. Launched in 2005, the festival is intended to provide audiences and experts insight into recent documentary films, stimulate national documentary production and boost international and regional cooperation in co-productions. ZagrebDox is a specialised festival that presents the best creative documentary films whose imaginative form and choice of topics make it unique in Croatia and Europe.

<i>Speaking in Strings</i> 1999 American film

Speaking in Strings is a 1999 documentary film directed by Paola di Florio. The film is based on the life of Italian-born violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and it received a nomination for Best Feature Documentary Film at the 72nd Academy Awards.

<i>The Farm: Angola, USA</i> 1998 American documentary film

The Farm: Angola, USA is a 1998 award-winning documentary set in the notorious and largest American maximum-security prison, Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola. Loosely based on articles published in Life Sentences, drawn from the prison magazine, The Angolite, the film was directed and produced by Jonathan Stack and Liz Garbus. Wilbert Rideau, a life prisoner who had been editor of the magazine since 1975, also participated in direction and was credited on the film.

Life. Support. Music. is a 2008 documentary film and is Eric Daniel Metzgar's second documentary. It premiered at the 2008 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina.

<i>Marwencol</i> (film) 2010 American documentary film about the work of artist and photographer Mark Hogancamp

Marwencol is a 2010 American documentary film that explores the life and work of artist and photographer Mark Hogancamp. It is the debut feature of director Jeff Malmberg. It was the inspiration for Welcome to Marwen, a 2018 drama directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Bertha Bay-Sa Pan is a Taiwanese-American Director, Writer and Producer. Born in New Jersey and raised in Taiwan, Pan was educated at Boston University and the Columbia University Graduate Film School receiving a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Directing, while working as a Sales Executive in Film Distribution. Pan's graduate thesis short film at Columbia University, entitled "Face," garnered various awards from Film Festivals worldwide, including the Director's Guild Award for Best Asian American Student Filmmaker and the Polo Ralph Lauren Award for Best Screenplay.

Final Cut for Real

Final Cut for Real ApS is a film production company based in Copenhagen, Denmark specializing in documentaries for the international market. The two Oscar-nominated groundbreaking documentaries The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014) helped establish the company as a recognized provider of independent creative documentaries on the international stage. The recent years, Final Cut for Real has also expanded to fiction films and virtual reality. In 2019 Final Cut for Real Norway was established.

<i>Jodorowskys Dune</i> 2013 documentary by Frank Pavich

Jodorowsky's Dune is a 2013 American-French documentary film directed by Frank Pavich. The film explores cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky's unsuccessful attempt to adapt and film Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune in the mid-1970s.

A River Changes Course is a 2013 documentary by Kalyanee Mam. The film explores the damage rapid development has wrought in her native Cambodia on both a human and environmental level. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2013 and won the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary. The film also received the Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival.

<i>Atomic Mom</i> 2010 American film

Atomic Mom is a 2010 documentary film written and directed by M.T. Silvia about the complex experiences of two women struggling with the emotional repercussions of their connections to the nuclear bombings on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II in August 1945.

<i>The Biggest Little Farm</i> 2018 American film

The Biggest Little Farm is a 2018 American documentary film, directed by John Chester. The film profiles the life of John Chester and his wife Molly as they acquire and establish themselves on Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, California.

References

  1. ↑ "Yahoo". www.cinematical.com.
  2. ↑ http://www.accessatlanta.com/movies/movies/etc/getCriticReview.jspd?criticReviewId=9261%5B%5D
  3. ↑ "It's fun to be 5". Boston.com– via The Boston Globe.
  4. ↑ https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117933148.html?categoryid=31&cs=1) Archived February 2, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ "New York Movies - Audience of One's Greatest Folly is Its Filmmaker - page 1". Archived from the original on May 15, 2009. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
  6. ↑ Musetto, V. A. (May 8, 2009). "DOC HAS A HEAVENLY BODY OF LAUGHS".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.