In Hoover Street Revival director Sophie Fiennes delivers a fascinating contrast to the interactive styles of fashionable filmmakers like Nick Broomfield and Michael Moore. Fiennes observational style can be largely explained by the fact that she was often behind the camera herself, a one-woman crew relying on her credit card for funding. Fiennes does not appear in the film, her voice is not heard and she does not interview her subject, Bishop Noel Jones.

Hoover Street Revival is a collage of images from South Central LA. Images from Jones' extraordinary sermons are juxtaposed with gritty footage from the lives of his congregation. Elaborate gospel arrangements appear in the film alongside the aftermath of a drive by shooting, helicopter shots of vast ghettoes and the travails of a single father. This passive, non-judgemental rendering of the community is the films greatest strength but it is also its greatest weakness.

At no point does the audience feel that we get beyond the mesmerising delivery of the film's subject. Perhaps Fiennes thought that by interviewing Bishop Jones, she would destroy the mystique that is central to his impressive presence. By not doing so, Fiennes offers little of real substance to go with the style. The audience wonders, for instance, who will profit from the Bishop's cottage industry in which he sells off CDs and videos of his sermons? We have no idea why the Bishop is there, how he got there, and what he really does beyond giving sermons and selling them. While there is no doubt that some of his congregation's lives have improved as a result of his teaching, could that not be said of many ministers of the church?

If Fiennes' aim is to show that the spectacular delivery of a showman bishop will improve some people's lives, she has no doubt done so. However, one can't help feeling that an opportunity to dig a little deeper was missed. It's a fascinating, but ultimately unsatisfying, film.