The premiere at the Paramount last night of What Would Jesus Buy?, a feature-length doc about performance artist-cum-prophet the Rev. Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping was amazing for several reasons. The first of which being simply how awesome the flick was, following Billy from his NYC base through the heartland in December to protest the commercialization of Christmas and our unsustainable, consumption-driven society with humor and direct action. But just as sweet was the good reverend and his choir’s spirited performance and Q&A after the screening. The last question of the evening came from a young man in the balcony (producer Morgan Spurlock was the first moderator I’ve seen pick the cheap seats). To paraphrase, he said, “Reverend Billy, we’ve got a Wal-Mart coming to Austin. Will you come back and help us?”
“We will return!” boomed Billy. “[We’ll fight] the Wal-Mart coming to Northcross! We will be sweat free!” he screamed to the shrieking audience.
So good to know the reverend’s on top of everything.
This article appears in March 9 • 2007.