Ultrachrist! in Williamsburg

I'm in a dank rehearsal space in scenic Williamsburg watching Jesus, dressed in silver tights, a blue cape and sandals, sing an awful country song about sexual proclivities, while a cowgirl, a chubby guy in wrestling tights and a Richard Nixon mask, and a few strumpets dance around him.

A bad dream? No, something much worse: the set of Ultrachrist!, a new movie by fledgling filmmakers Kerry Douglas Dye and Jordan Hoffman. The vibe from the cast and crew reminds me of the hippie acting troupe in Easy Rider. Playing Jesus, Jonathan Green could pass for any British classic rock star in his prime. When Hoffman introduces me around, the women in the cast, all young and beautiful, playfully call out my name Manson-family style. The story of Ultrachrist!?a satirical take on the Second Coming, with lesbians and a dominatrix?is like a cross between a Troma production and one of the Kinks' early-70s concept albums.

Dye and Hoffman are a real-life Odd Couple. Dye's a nervous little man, maintaining a veneer of calm as he calls out specific instructions to the cast and skeleton crew, with a perpetual look on his face not far from terror. Hoffman cowrote the screenplay with him, and is also acting as the Archangel Ira, a character not much different from Hoffman himself, a big, lusty Jew who teases the cast and inspires loathing or amusement in everyone he meets.

The duo holds no illusions about what they're doing. Both have sunk into serious credit card debt and called in any vestiges of inheritances and dotcom money to make the project's relatively paltry $20k bottom line. The crew is just as strapped. "Two people in our crew had to borrow my cellphone to battle collection agencies as they waited for checks to clear," Hoffman says.

This is Dye and Hoffman's first full-length production, and every day is a learning experiencing in shoestring budgeting. "People eat a lot more than you think," Dye says of the crew. "Like horses," Hoffman agrees. "Even the actors." To cut corners, they're filming on the cheap in the 718s and suburbs, hitting bars and pizza parlors early in the morning and filming interior scenes in friends' apartments. Dye says he will never forget the sight of Hoffman walking down Ditmars Blvd. in Astoria wearing a pair of angel's wings, or a gaggle of school kids surrounding Green on the street yelling, "It's Jesus! It's Jesus!"

"When it's a ridiculous comedy like Ultrachrist!," Hoffman explains, "the crew and cast tend to be in a continual good mood, instead of having to make another dreary picture about a doomed gay love affair or junkies who can't score." The pair's goal is to get the movie out to festivals, and maybe a local venue like Two Boots, where a critic or agent might happen upon it and give them a boost toward future projects.

Until then, they endure minor calamities like speeding tickets, a crashed equipment van and their lead actress falling down a flight of stairs. The day I was there, the cast endured hours of aerosol smoke sprayed in their faces to replicate a nightclub atmosphere for a big musical number. Like troupers, they smiled through the whole thing, maintaining a mood that balanced actors' nerves and sheer boredom.

At the end of the shoot they all took the subway or walked home, perhaps wondering what they had gotten themselves into. "Bush's State of the Union address could have been read by a Bible salesman," Hoffman comments on the inspiration for Ultrachrist!. "We feel that the world really needs a movie that will bring it together. And features lesbians."