Whisk together the genetic material of Captain Beefheart with that of an ecstatic storefront preacher and you might conjure the singer Vince “the Reverend” Anderson, in all his Falstaffian glory. For over two decades, this ordained preacher and gospel musician has plied his trade at clubs like Union Pool in Williamsburg and at the Bushwick Abbey, the Episcopalian church on St. Nicholas Avenue where he works as a minister. Now, he is the subject of a feature length documentary, which debuted to acclaim last year at Doc NYC.

The Reverend is the feature-length debut from Nick Canfield, a self-identified lapsed Episcopalian from the Upper West Side who says he once worked as a camera assistant to the late Albert Maysles, of Gray Gardens fame; the “direct cinema” aesthetic exemplified by Maysles informs the look and feel of his movie. In a phone interview, Canfield said he’s been a fan of Anderson since, roughly, the beginning of the Obama Administration.

“The music is incredible,” he says. “And it’s, like, a spiritual experience for all these people from all walks of life, in the most unlikely place to have a spiritual experience.”