Created over a heroic 11 years , it was directed and mostly shot by Steven Sebring , a high-end commercial photographer whose perseverance and conspicuous unfamiliarity with , or disregard for , the conventions of nonfiction cinema ( not to mention the apparently deep-enough pockets that freed him to follow his own muse ) have inspired a lovely , drifty first feature that feels less like a documentary and more like an act of rapturous devotion .