— by WILLIAM STERR — Rough times. The corona virus is raging in Canada and businesses are shut down. Eula Baek’s (Chantelle Han – “Circle of Steel”) grandfather has died, and the restaurant he owned is going under. She needs cash from somewhere, and boyfriend Morris Weiss (Charles Boyland – “Becky”) has an idea. The […][...]
Review: Afghan Dreamers
— by BEV QUESTAD — On Fridays, when the men aren’t around, Lida’s father takes her to the mechanic shop to work on cars. She demonstrates her skill at changing a tire, spinning the socket wrench like a pro. Rare for women in her country, she also drives. But her primary focus is working with […][...]
Review: The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
— by WILLIAM STERR — We are all familiar with the story of Frankenstein. Many of us are familiar with the fact that Mary Shelley wrote it as a moralistic tale, not just a horror story. That important aspect is too often lost in the film translations, with “Man was never meant to play God” […][...]
Review: A Handful of Water
— by BEV QUESTAD — A 12-year-old Yemeni refugee and an 85-year-old German man, once a refugee himself, meet in Germany. The old widower, Konrad (Jürgen Prochnow – “Das Boot”), and the 12-year old fugitive, Thurba (Milena Pribak), are adversaries at first, but their separate battles coincide. On the surface the story is certainly gripping […][...]
Review: The Human Trial
— by BEV QUESTAD — Lisa Hepner takes us through what it’s like to be a human rodent in a high stakes trial. The pressure is hot. This particular test trial is the first one using humans after a success on mice, but only180 days are left of Viacyte’s funding. Everyone wants the scientific experiment […][...]
Review: Assassin Club
— by WILLIAM STERR — Our story begins in Prague, Czechoslovakia, with the assassination of a wealthy man and near-killing of his young daughter, who is saved by her uncle. Flash forward seven years to Ljubljana, Slovenia. It’s nighttime and an assassin waits in an upper floor of a building overlooking another where a criminal […][...]
Review: The Last of the Winthrops
— by BEV QUESTAD — I know of four women who decided not to tell their children who their real father was. Lo and behold, when their children got older and needed birth certificates to apply for their respective passports, they saw a new name. Deceit, even with kind intentions, has repercussions. Viviane Winthrop, the […][...]
Review: Hell’s Half Acre
— by WILLIAM STERR — It’s rough making a living as an urban explorer of mysterious abandoned buildings. However, Marcus (Quinn Nehr – “Sheltered”) and his small band of fellow videocasters are doing their best. Girlfriend Jessie (Brynn Beveridge – “That Night”) wants to expand their appeal by adding a paranormal element to their YouTube […][...]
Review: Champions
— by BEV QUESTAD — Marcus Marakovich (Woody Harrelson) has a temper and an ambition to be a basketball coach in the NBA. After a televised altercation with a minor-league head coach during a game, he gets drunk, plows into a police car and loses his job. He is given a choice of jail time […][...]
Exclusive: Filmmaker’s Solution for Lebanon
Exclusive Interview Part Three: The Solution Daizy Gedeon with Ramez Tomeh, Beirut transcribed and introduced by Bev Questad, IJM writer What is going to happen to Lebanon? Its political and economic systems have collapsed. People can’t get their own money out of the banks and inflation has made the Lebanese pound almost worthless. When I […][...]