— by WILLIAM STERR — What is it like to be threatened by ruthless gangs and then, when you go to the police, discover that they are being paid off by those same gangs? There are people in the US who know all too well what that is like, but most of us don’t. Even […][...]
Review: Limbo
— by WILLIAM STERR — Limbo – a fictional town in the hot, arid Australian Outback. Limbo – a place of indeterminate location, whose inhabitants are neither in heaven nor hell. Limbo – a film by aboriginal director/writer Ivan Sen, which explores a forgotten murder case that took place 20 years before. There are many […][...]
Review: Knox Goes Away
— by WILLIAM STERR — “Put it on the … the … the thing over there … you know.” How many times has something like that happened to you? You need a common, everyday word and it just wont come. Then the person you’re talking to says “counter?” and of course you knew that! It […][...]
Review: Just Getting By
— by BEV QUESTAD — Last Monday, I spent five hours preparing, serving, and cleaning up dinner for 15 homeless at my church in Vancouver, Washington. We alternate providing dinners, breakfasts, and overnight housing with another church. By 7:30 p.m., the guests nestled in on fold-out mattresses with thick blankets. One fellow had his dog, […][...]
Review: 20 Days in Mariupol
— 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. […][...]