SFIFF: Audience Of One

Gazowsky lured in a crew of volunteer workers from Craigslist on the promise of $200 million in funding from German investors (which is always late) and the strength of his vision -- but without any real experience, the team falls more and more behind, with a schadenfreude-filled shoot in Italy where pretty much every single thing that can go wrong does.

Meanwhile, Gazowsky's spending more and more money on expensive film equipment and beautifully-designed costumes and shoots and reshoots and re-reshoots -- and convinces the City and County of San Francisco to lease WYSIWIG a building on Treasure Island, on which there is no way they can afford the rent.

As the movie goes on, you start thinking Gazowsky's more and more out of touch with reality -- and it becomes apparent that WYSIWYG is burning all kinds of bridges with vendors (whom they don't pay, on the theory that God will provide) and the local film unions (none of whom approve of the free labor they've using on the shoots). Gazowsky keeps repeating that it's all part of God's vision, and if God's told him to make Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph, he can't very well turn him down now, can he?

Some of the plot of the movie has already been spoiled by the minutes of the San Francisco Treasure Island Development Authority (we are dying to know what Treasure Island supervisor Chris Daly thought of this whole thing, though he does not make an appearance in the movie) -- but Gazowsky's not cowed: like any filmmaker, he's going to stay true to his vision, no matter what.

Audience of One is very even-handed in its tone, and, no matter how hard it must have been, the director never makes fun of Gazowsky or the project (though the few parts of Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph we see and hear make it clear that the movie is terrible). The audience, however, wasn't quite so kind, laughing and saying, "that guy is crazy!" -- which made it extra awkward when it turned out Gazowsky and his family were watching the premiere and available for questions afterwards!!! Audible gulp from the crowd!

We fled the room right when the Gazowskys came up on stage, fearing the worst (also, we had to meet someone to see another movie), but from what we heard, the crowd was very polite but also quite pointed, with one person asking, "How do you know when it's a directive from God and not just you talking to yourself?" Gazowsky, to his credit, apparently took the question and said basically, "I just know."

Audience of One screens again Monday at 12:45 p.m.