When singing “Get Out of My Way,” Rev. Vince Anderson doesn’t take long to get to the roar and mourning. Anderson and his band Lovequire, the subject of the frequently featured documentary “The Revend,” stayed at Williamsburg’s bar Union Pool for 20 years. And although Anderson calls it the “dirty gospel,” the serious, organ-striking, saxophone-sounding representative was a call to a Monday night gathering.
Director Nick Canfield, an observational filmmaker, chases Anderson while he is jamming. Cook pastrami at his home in the Ridgewood district of Queens. He works with Bushwick’s teenage rapper. And a burn storm by Vote Common Good, an evangelical group focused on activating religious-minded voters to support progressive candidates during the 2018 midterm elections.
A big man with a strong singing voice, Anderson, who likes kaftan and straw hats, is a storytelling rhythm when sharing a spiritual journey that took him from his Lutheran childhood in California to Union Theological Seminary in New York. is. He planned to become a minister but left. (He has been ordained since then.)
The early turning point came in college when he crossed the nun’s picket line to see “the last temptation of Christ” in the depiction of “Beautiful Human Jesus,” he says.
The decisive one came to Union when he crossed the street on Sunday Epiphany and entered the Riverside Church, where the sermon of the day was the “mystery of the Christian vocation.” The message says, “We are all sought after for good and justice.” He accepted music as his ministry.
The arrival of Millicent Souris was a boon. On their first date, she said of an equally wonderful kaftan. He has nothing. They got married in 2018. There are other interesting and thoughtful interviews (Questlove offers a few words of choice), as well as thoughts about elegance. Canfield’s debut feature is infused with a unique measure of its gentle spirit. It also fortunately lacks piety.
Pastor
Unrated. Execution time: 1 hour and 26 minutes. In the theater.
