— by BEV QUESTAD — If you’ve still got some Teflon pans, dump them immediately at a toxic waste site. That advice is inferred from an exposé on one of the world’s largest and most dangerous chemical companies and their production of perfluorooctanoic acid, aka PFOA, a deadly carcino[...]
Author Archive
Review: Clemency
— by BEV QUESTAD — Not a hair out of place, demurely dressed in a tailored suit, calm and in control, the warden supervises a prison each day meticulously confirming that all rules and regulations are followed, especially the ones for executions. After four years of research, Chinonye Ch[...]
Short Film: Blue
— by BEV QUESTAD — The most exciting, shocking, gorgeously filmed environmental short at Willamette Riverkeeper’s 2019 Wild and Scenic Film Festival is about women athletes snow biking down mountains outside of Valdez, Alaska. There are steep, gaping crevasses, suicidal slippery-edged [...]
Review: Saving Atlantis
— by BEV QUESTAD — Plato mentioned that Atlantis was the unfortunate, great kingdom that fought and lost to mighty Athens. Also losing favor from the gods, Atlantis was so totally destroyed that it was overcome by the sea. While subsequent writers have found evidence that Atlantis was ov[...]
Review: American Muslim
— by BEV QUESTAD — Two rabbis organize a supportive, protective chain outside a Brooklyn mosque where Muslims come to pray each Friday. Touched by their connection to a heritage of suffering, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and Rabbi Marisa Elana James, along with congregants from Congregation Be[...]
Review: The Great Green Wall
— by BEV QUESTAD — Inna Modja, a wildly popular Malian-French singer, takes a stunning journey across Africa, from Senegal on the Pacific to Djibouti on the Red Sea. As she travels, she and her band create music and collaborate with other singers and instrumentalists along the way. Her i[...]
Review: The Fourth Kingdom
— by BEV QUESTAD — Most films at DOC NYC are shown once, but “The Fourth Kingdom” is scheduled for two screenings. Why? In the first minutes of this documentary cinema verité, it looks like we are in for a story about garbage in Mexico and the people who take care of it. But as [&he[...]
Review: Brooklyn Inshallah
— by BEV QUESTAD — A normal guy with a pastor’s collar is walking on a Brooklyn street in New York City. We hear him greet a passer-by, “Wa alaykumu as-salam. My name is Khader El-Yateem, a candidate for City Council.” How El-Yateem got to this sidewalk is actually more fascinating[...]
Review: Cory in Brick City
— by BEV QUESTAD — “We are modern day freedom fighters. We are the people that have to somehow rescue what we claim to stand for,” says Cory Booker in prescient rhetoric back when he was mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Booker was elected mayor of Newark, New Jersey, in 2006 when gang wa[...]
Review: Sheep Hero (aka Schapenheld)
— by BEV QUESTAD — Soft, gorgeous, blue fog rests in a thin line on the meadow as the sun rises on a shepherd and his flock. He has slept the night in the field and greets the day praising his situation: “Openness, peace, space, freedom, my own choices, not someone else’s. That’s i[...]
Review: Mr. Toilet
— by BEV QUESTAD — “When you turn 007 upside down it spells LOO and it’s such a perfect opportunity not to be wasted,” declares Jack Sim, activist and social-environmental clown. The film’s title is embarrassing and silly, but if you thought something like cancer, heart disease, [...]
Review: Adopt a Highway
— by BEV QUESTAD — Ethan Hawke delivers an intricate, internal, virtuoso performance as a man freshly released from jail after 21 years. He’s not angry, bitter or resentful, but socially slow and afraid. Russell Millings (Hawke) is a victim of the Three Strikes Law. His third offense w[...]
Review: Cold Brook
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Cold Brook” is about two best friends who are coping with getting older. Ted and George’s marriages are humdrum and the waitress at the diner doesn’t treat them like she used to. Ted is losing some coordination and it’s a worry. Reliving their youth, they jo[...]
Review: Ága
— by BEV QUESTAD — Would any normal, healthy young adult choose to live with parents in an animal-hide yurt out on the freezing tundra of northern Russia with no other sign of human life? Isn’t being self-sufficient, melting a block of ice for water and ice fishing for dinner, a dream [...]