— by BEV QUESTAD — I’m writing from Hong Kong about a film produced here called “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” Set primarily in the downtown business district of HK, I’m analyzing it from a cultural perspective, trying to gain some insight about the seemingly very we[...]
Author Archive
An Exclusive Interview with Mohammad Kharoti
— by BEV QUESTAD — Mohammad Kharoti had just a moment. He was kindly dropping off a gift copy of “Stealing the Light.” It’s a documentary on his life growing up in a nomadic caravan, entering school at age 12, becoming a surgeon and then building a school in the roughest area i[...]
Under Review: ‘Ask Us Who We Are’
— by BEV QUESTAD — One young man, now a dad, says that on his last night at home he was in a nightmare. He would gulp for air between his father’s blows to his stomach. He was so mad by the time the beating was over he snarled at his dad, “When you go […][...]
Short Film Theater: Tim Hetherington’s ‘Diary’
— by BEV QUESTAD — Stacato shots, gasping breaths, sirens, honking, shouts, dangerous car rides, unintelligible voices in distress, chaos. Impressionist film collage and war poetry. “Diary” begins with a barrier, a light silken curtain, that obscures vision. A fan whirs, perhaps to f[...]
Afghan Doc Makes Impact on Students
— by BEV QUESTAD — “The biggest enemies to Afghanistan are poverty, ignorance and illiteracy. It breaks my heart,” says Dr. Mohammad Kharoti, the subject of the documentary, “Stealing the Light.” In the fall, a few students from a Vancouver, Wash., high school[...]
Under Review: ‘Queen of the Sun’
— by BEV QUESTAD — What happens when the one you love, the one you trust to always be there and the one who gives you sustenance disappears without a trace? “Queen of the Sun” is a delicate, sensitive, tender love story of nurturing and interdependence portending a great trag[...]
Under Review: ‘Clear Cut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon’
— by BEV QUESTAD — Since 1958, all the graduating seniors at Philomath High School who were going on to college were given college scholarships. Rex Clemens, a local timber baron, established this foundation to support the high school and its students. But then it became political[...]
Under Review: ‘One Lucky Elephant’
— by BEV QUESTAD — “One Lucky Elephant” starts with Flora and her owner of 16 years, David Balding, walking down a sidewalk in St. Louis. Flora, an elephant, holds onto David’s hand with her trunk. Balding remarks, “I got Flora because I wanted an elephant for my circus.[...]
Under Review: ‘Poetry’
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Poetry” — a film examining crime and redemption — begins with a screen filled with rushing river water, a symbol of life, source, and beginning. In this movie’s particular case, it is also the repository for the body of a young girl. Lee Chang-dong, [...]
In Tribute to Tim Hetherington
— by BEV QUESTAD — Being a war correspondent sounds like a wildly romantic, adventurous life. Any day may be your last, so each moment is precious and lived to the fullest. However, living life on the edge, unarmed, in the constant line of fire and in the constant midst of human terror, [...]
Under Review: ‘Born to be Wild 3D’
— by BEV QUESTAD — There’s no one on the planet — no matter the gender, age, disability, sexual preference or ethnic origin — who will not supremely appreciate this warm-hearted film telling the story of two camps, one in Borneo and the other in Kenya, for orphaned animals.[...]
Under Review: ‘Earthwork’
— by BEV QUESTAD — Sometimes when something is just temporary, when you know it’s not going to last, that’s when it becomes the most precious and the most sacred. In this sense, earthworks are such a creation of the heart. Using the ground as a canvas, the crop artist creates a pictu[...]
Under Review: ‘My Perestroika’
— by BEV QUESTAD — As the Iron Curtain disintegrates, adults who grew up as patriotic children in a communist façade become cynics, chagrined by the duping of themselves and a nation. Robin Hessman, an Academy award-winning filmmaker, interviews five adults who came of age during this m[...]
Under Review: ‘Of Gods and Men’
— by BEV QUESTAD — Beautifully and tenderly developed, slow moving and realistically presented, “Of Gods and Men” is the true story of a group of eight heroic French Cistercian-Trappist monks who lived in Tibhirine, located in the Atlas Mountains of northern Africa, during[...]