— by BEV QUESTAD — The city is still and quiet. Not a tree leaf moves, as if trying not to call attention to itself. At the border, a two-pronged attack, though denied, is methodically being organized. One will come from the north into Kyiv and the other, here, 35 miles from Russia in the […][...]
Review: Rustin
— by BEV QUESTAD — Diversity, inspiration, compassion, and transformation are the guiding principles of Higher Ground (HG), the Obamas’ production company. Michelle Obama says, “I always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire us, to make us think differently about the world around us, and to help us open our minds and hearts […][...]
Review: Yellow
— by BEV QUESTAD — In a sea of blue burqas, only a cat runs free, scampering freely from rooftop to rooftop high above the fettered women below. This 12-minute exceptional documentary short was nominated for a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for best short doc. It begins by showing the agile rooftop cat, a […][...]
Review: American Dreamer
— by WILLIAM STERR — Dr. Phil Loder (Peter Dinklage – “Game of Thrones”) is a professor of Economics at Brockton University in Massachusetts. He’s an adjunct professor. That means he has no tenure, no protections against claims of improper behavior, a very low salary, and no respect. He is a bitter man whose dreams […][...]
Review: Beyond Utopia
— by BEV QUESTAD — Fording rivers, climbing mountains, circling in a jungle, and hiking in the dark to evade capture, this long circuitous odyssey from North Korea through China to South Korea is what lucky North Koreans can expect to endure. For the unlucky it is betrayal by the broker, capture, return, life-threatening punishment, […][...]
Review: Veselka
— by WILLIAM STERR — “Jason Birchard has a hunger to feed people …” So intones narrator David Duchovny (“The X Files”), who himself has some Ukrainian ancestry, at the beginning of this documentary about a unique Ukrainian restaurant in New York City. The restaurant began as a candy, tobacco and newspaper store in 1954. […][...]
Review: Four Daughters
— by BEV QUESTAD — It was 2015 when Barack Obama approved the bombing of an Islamic terrorist center in Libya. Here, Noureddine Chouchane, a militant commander connected to two deadly attacks in neighboring Tunisia, was killed. Surviving were his wife and his wife’s sister. “Four Daughters” examines what might have influenced these women to […][...]
Review: The Peasants
— by WILLIAM STERR — Epic. That is the term the Nobel committee used in awarding Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1924 for his novel, “The Peasants.” In 2023, the film version of “The Peasants” was released at various film festivals. It will be released in theaters in the US in […][...]
Review: Cold Meat
— by WILLIAM STERR — The story of the Wendigo is an enduring one that has been the basis of numerous films over the years. It appeared as a motivating character in Steven King’s 1983 novel “Pet Cemetery,” as the title character in numerous films, as the possessing spirit in Guillermo del Toro’s “Antlers,” and […][...]