Director Nick Canfield’s celebratory documentary will likely defy any notion you many have about gospel music or ministry. Gravelly-voiced showman and ordained minister Vince Anderson, better known as the Reverend, is a legend on the Brooklyn music scene. He’s been belting out his inimitable joyful noise and spreading good vibes to loyal fans every Monday night for 20 years at Union Pool, a bar in Williamsburg.
Canfield, a longtime documentary cinematographer who learned his craft alongside none other than the great Al Maysles, makes his directing debut with this enjoyable, observational portrait of Anderson. The film traces Anderson’s Lutheran childhood in California to his stint at New York’s Union Theological Seminary. He left after three months (he was ordained much later) to devote himself fully to music which he married with his expansive and inclusive view of Christianity.
Anderson started playing accordion and piano — banging the keys to destruction — in tiny clubs in New York’s Nast Village. A friend and former bandmate aptly calls Anderson’s musical style the “holy spirit meets the Tasmanian devil.” There’s great raw footage of early performances featuring the burly Anderson in a sweat belting out what he terms “dirty gospel” in a voice that sounds part Dr. John, part James Brown. Backed by the tight musicians of The Love Choir, Anderson worked himself into such a fever that he sometimes ripped off his clothes and performed naked.
Filmed over several years, the film includes interviews with Anderson who, besides his Monday night residency, serves as a musician at two Brooklyn churches, Bushwick Abbey and Citylights Community. Prior to that, Anderson practiced his brand of bighearted progressive ministry alongside minister Jay Bakker, son of evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, who is interviewed in the film and talks about bringing a message of love and community to all.
Also sharing their lively stories are musicians such as saxophonist “Moist” Paula Henderson who’ve been jamming with Anderson for two decades and fans including Questlove. There’s Anderson’s longtime parter Millicent Souris who in a terrific scene proposes to a surprised Anderson while he’s onstage. Their 2018 wedding, a nontraditional gathering of friends of all ages and persuasions, culminates with the band playing and the wedding guests dancing through the streets.
Anderson’s ministry is about walking the talk or, more fittingly, the song. There are scenes of him jamming with neighborhood teenagers as he encourages their songwriting; he travels to El Paso, Texas to perform at an outside memorial following the mass shooting in a Walmart. But the heart of the film is the raucous, joyful, infectious music which underscores Anderson’s claim that church happens to be really good at bringing people from all walks of life together to sing.
