Chances are you’ve never met anyone quite like Patrick McCollum. The subject of filmmaker Gabe Polsky’s documentary The Man Who Saves the World? has a list of credentials as long as it is wide: reverend, peace advocate, Indigenous rights activist, kung fu master, deep sea diver, do-it-yourself homebuilder, self-taught luthier and violinist, Wiccan advisor to the Pentagon, interfaith prison chaplain (to Charles Manson and the Menendez brothers, no less), Ghanaian monarch (“I’m a king,” he tells Polsky, “but I’m a minor king over a region that has, like, 20,000 people or something”), and — most importantly — the man prophesied to unite the native peoples of the Amazon and save the planet.
If that sounds far-fetched, well, Polsky is right there with you. “Initially, once I met him, I said, ‘Wow, this guy is unbelievable, fascinating,’” Polsky said. “But I thought, ‘Well, maybe he's full of it.’”
That doubt is at the thematic center of The Man Who Saves The World? After the film screened at the Riviera Theatre on Sunday morning, Polsky appeared in front of the audience for a conversation with Santa Barbara International Film Festival Executive Director Roger Durling. He spoke about navigating the uncertainty and ambiguity surrounding McCollum’s mission.