— by BEV QUESTAD with MICHAEL FUNG — Economic inequality, above all else, is the defining issue of our time. A healthy economy is the prime precedent for a healthy world. But can a doc on a subject like that bring in an audience? “Inequality for All” reflects how things are going rig[...]
Author Archive
Inequality for All: Trailer and Clips
— by BEV QUESTAD — I just couldn’t bear another depressing, boring, difficult to understand film about the financial demise of the US economy. So when a friend sent me the “Inequality for All” trailer, I almost didn’t check it out. Lo and behold, we’ve got comedy and he[...]
Review: Mission Park
— by BEV QUESTAD and RON WILKINSON — “Deception has no friend.” A voice adds, “We grew up soldiers around here. Most don’t make it past 24. But I never thought it would come to this.” “Mission Park” begins with four friends as young boys around 11 years old. At that[...]
Review: Out of the Clear Blue Sky
— by BEV QUESTAD and RON WILKINSON — Note to the reader: This review is written by two IJM authors, exchanging decidedly different points of view. Although the format probably is different than you are used to, we hope you enjoy it. Is this a sentimental documentary erring on the side of[...]
Review: Money for Nothing
— by BEV QUESTAD — “This is a scary movie and no one should see it.” These are the words of Mary Eterno, economics buff and go-to person for financial matters. Bill Fleckenstein (MSN Money) calls it “a horror movie for smart people.” In this info-doc producer/director Jim Bruce g[...]
Review: Best Kept Secret
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Thank you for calling John F. Kennedy, the best kept secret in the Newark Public Schools. How may I help you?” That’s how the secretary is asked to answer the phone. However, there are more kept secrets than one and they’re not all good. But the true best is t[...]
Review: Rock N Roll Mamas
— by BEV QUESTAD — The most unfortunate part of this documentary on mother rockers is that no one really seems happy. An obsession with performing drives them in vans, buses and airplanes across town, country and world. One singer tiredly exclaims in the fall, “I’ve been homeless sin[...]
Review: Modest Reception
— by BEV QUESTAD — Under what circumstances would you accept a big plastic bag full of money? Would it matter who gave it to you or where it came from? In addition, if you were asked to do something for this fortune, where would you draw the line? This weird Iranian film poses some [&hel[...]
Review: We Grew Wings
— by BEV QUESTAD and MARY ANN HODGE — If you were to grow a couple of extra appendages, wings for example, imagine the tipsy exhilaration of the first flight, the excitement at the expanded potential and the joy in the practice. “We Grew Wings,” a bow to Nike’s support of the Unive[...]
Review: Factory of One
— by BEV QUESTAD — This film’s subject epitomizes a crazy west coast experience that culminates in an annual effigy-burning ritual, a phenomenon of anarchical, free-spirited, innovative San Franciscans who in 1986 were bent on combining psycho-transformation, paganism and freedom theol[...]
Review: The Company You Keep
— by BEV QUESTAD — Robert Redford can have his pick of just about anything he wants to do. At 76 years of age, he chose to produce, direct and star in “The Company You Keep,” which is an investigation into the minds and times of the Weather Underground. This film is the story of [&he[...]
Review: Southwest (aka Sudoeste)
— by BEV QUESTAD — This is the haunting story of the life of a woman. It begins with a witch being carted to the deathbed of the woman’s pregnant mother. The daughter is apparently carved out of her passed mother’s womb and taken to an isolated wooden boxhouse on top of stilts in the[...]
Review: Masquerade
— by BEV QUESTAD — Spending time in South Korea this summer I chanced across a sweet film based on 17th Century King Gwanghae who out-maneuvered treacherous court representatives to champion the poor and bring justice through fairer tax, property and military conscription systems. In thi[...]