When I was 33 years old, toiling away in my own virtual obscurity while waiting to be discovered as the next Steven Spielberg, I took a job managing post-production for a feature length motion control ride on the life of Jesus Christ. I was certain my work on this ludicrous endeavor would provide endless material to regale both friends and family for years to come.

In spite of my jaded intentions, the experience impacted me profoundly. I read the Bible for the first time, read books about the Bible, even books about books about the Good Book. I am Jewish by birth, agnostic by choice, a movie going zealot by avocation. My interest in Jesus’ story didn’t lead to any religious conversion, but it did result in my watching-and thoroughly enjoying-33 films about Jesus Christ. It turns out the Savior and the Silver Screen share a long and fruitful history together.

As I continued to read---religious texts, philosophical tracts and every movie history book I could get my hands on---I made even more unexpected connections: between Evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews, between the Crucifixion and the Holocaust, between Polish shtetls and Hollywood back lots, even between Jesus movies and Porn.

When the project’s writer/producer/director (a sanctimonious Born Again bully and an incompetent filmmaker to boot) instructed me to write a padded bid so that he could pocket the difference between my estimate and money actually spent, I found myself deeply conflicted. Should I go "eye for an eye" or "turn the other cheek"; do the right thing and lose my job in the process, or write the padded bid despite my misgivings and live to fight another day? The events leading up to, and stemming from, this impossible dilemma provide the spine of JESUS RIDE’s multi-layered narrative. The history of film, the history of Jews in America, the history of Jesus and Christianity, and my own personal family history all play a critical role in this theatrical re-telling of my strange, surreal cinematic adventure.

How did an impoverished rabbi become the father of modern Christianity? How did an illiterate Junkman from Minsk go on to re-invent the American dream? How did Hollywood, an industry run by Jews address the Bible’s thorny "Jewish Question" in the course of making religious themed films? How did my father, the man who instilled in me a love for the movies and inspired me to become an artist myself, meet the creative and ethical challenges of his own career in Hollywood? And how will all of these historical precedents and family legacies impact my own course of action in JESUS RIDE’s climactic moment of truth? Will the sins of the father be visited upon the son?

JESUS RIDE addresses all of these complex questions, and many more, as it juxtaposes my own life experience with both images and anecdotes of the cinematic Son of God himself-from his first appearance on the silver screen to his most recent (and lucrative) incarnation. It is an epic, comedic theatrical roller coaster -- traveling at dizzying speeds, taking countless hairpin twists and turns through sweeping historical vistas and deeply felt private moments; sublime and absurd, profane and profound, part movie history, part chronicle of Western Civilization; a stem winding personal confession and a raconteur’s fever dream. At its elemental core, JESUS RIDE is the simple story of two protagonists; one--the son of God, the other--son of a TV writer. Together they share a search for transcendence and a unique adventure through the worst Jesus movie ever made.