— by BEV QUESTAD — Working out an interpretation of Blaise Pascal’s theme on happiness, filmmaker Jérome Bonnell gives us 24 hours, beginning and ending with a ride on a train. Gabriel Byrne is perfectly cast as the interesting older man. Coming in from England to Paris for the funera[...]
Author Archive
Review: A World Not Ours
— by BEV QUESTAD — Screened at this year’s Portland International Film Festival, “A World Not Ours” was Lebanon’s entry into the 2014 Oscar competition for best film in a Foreign Language. It’s all about the 64-year-old Ain El Helweh refugee camp for Palestinians in southern Le[...]
Review: Mary, Queen of Scots
— by BEV QUESTAD — Many will flock to see “Mary Queen of Scots” with its dark and musty castles, mist-shrouded gentle landscapes and richly-colored costumes. Swiss filmmaker Thomas Imbach, with multiple writers, has idealized Mary as a romantic figure from Elizabethan times, truly mo[...]
Review: I Am Yours (aka Jeg er din)
— by BEV QUESTAD — Norway’s entry for consideration for a 2014 Oscar didn’t make the final cut, and when you see it, you’ll know why. A pretty single mother, Mina is starved for love and affection but has no idea how to get it. Soon enough, a man begins a flirtation on the street [[...]
Review: The Galapagos Affair
— by BEV QUESTAD — Ever get so disgusted with the government that you would like to branch out, so to speak, to your own uninhabited island? This is the way it was in 1929 for two Germans, Friedrich Ritter and Dore Strauch. They were totally disillusioned with society, calling it “a hu[...]
Review: The Wind Rises
— by BEV QUESTAD — The 86th Oscar nominations have bravely, and rightly, fingered “The Wind Rises” as one of five works for Best Animated Film. At home in Japan, the film opened with overwhelming success and abrupt, surprising controversy. The same will happen here if it wins for bes[...]
Review: Call Me Kuchu
— by BEV QUESTAD — Religion, culture and politics menacingly collide in this documentary over the life of a proposed political bill in Uganda and the life of David Kato. In what turns out to be a more dangerous culture of vigilantes and extremists than they had bargained for, filmmakers [...]
Review: Saving Mr. Banks
— by BEV QUESTAD — We get caught up in our own difficult stories, in patterns of expectation that recycle old troubles, but the trick is to change our mindset. Walt Disney will reveal his difficult childhood story that ironically fueled his happy-ending films and magical kingdoms. He als[...]
Review: Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey
— by BEV QUESTAD — I never like to read or watch anything more than once, but this adventure doc I could watch over and over. It is the story of a 440 mile eco-trek through the Ladakh region bordering the Himalayas. Vistas of land without telephone wires, clear sounds of nature with its [...]
Opinion on Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars
— by BEV QUESTAD with MICHAEL FUNG — Robert Greenwald’s investigative documentary, “Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars,” has been released for free viewing (you can view it in its entirety by clicking here). The film documents the case of Tariq Aziz, who was killed by[...]
Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars: Full Film
— by BEV QUESTAD — This investigative documentary was posted by Robert Greenwald last week (Oct. 30, 2013 into my email) and it is just as disturbing as it is factually based. It is the story of a 16-year old boy, Tariq Aziz, who signed up to work for two non-profits involved in document[...]
Review: Alias Ruby Blade
— by BEV QUESTAD — Abigail Disney, niece of Walt, searches for true-life Peter Pan/Cinderella stories and supports their production into the best human rights films on the face of the Earth. “Ruby Blade” is one of the best. It has all the courage, perseverance and magic that makes a [...]