— by BEV QUESTAD — Leah Purcell provides a gut punch that is hard to forget. Though her story takes place in Australia’s outback in 1893, what happens to her protagonist – strong, self-sufficient Molly Johnson – has been repeated throughout geography and time. How much of this story is legend, based on a short […][...]
Review: Here Be Dragons
— by BEV QUESTAD — Hiding in tall grass, a young man and woman have found a place to be innocently together. Unfortunately, it is Serbia in the early 1990s and the two are on somewhat opposing sides. David Locke is a British soldier, technically neutral, on a UN team tasked with mitigating the conflict […][...]
Review: Thirteen Lives
— by WILLIAM STERR — In 2018, a Thailand youth soccer team and their coach were trapped in a flooding cave. Thirteen lives, perhaps lost forever. In 2021, a documentary of the event was released by National Geographic Films. It featured actual footage and the participation of the real people involved. In 2022, a docudrama […][...]
Review: The Territory
— by BEV QUESTAD — The film opens with loggers cutting down trees to provide pasture land for lovely white Brahma cattle. Then it switches to indigenous people playing in a small fresh water tributary off the mighty Amazon. The members of the Uru-eu-wau-wau tribe are the owners and protectors of a Brazilian government-designated indigenous […][...]
Review: I Dream of a Psychopomp
— by WILLIAM STERR — “I Dream of a Psychopomp” is a TERRIBLE title for a movie. First of all, what is a “psychopomp”? According to the Oxford Languages: psy·cho·pomp noun 1. (in Greek mythology) a guide of souls to the place of the dead.[...]
Review: Kaepernick & America
— by BEV QUESTAD — Amidst a litany of unarmed African-American killings by police, Colin Kaepernick took a stand by dropping to one knee in 2016. My number one thought at the time: Why doesn’t everyone – spectators, media and other players in the stadium – join him? • Michael Brown, Ferguson MO, 8/9/2014, unarmed […][...]
Review: RRR
— by WILLIAM STERR — “Rise. Roar. Revolt.” That is the meaning of the three Rs that constitute the title of this 2022 Tollywood extravaganza. And they certainly do describe it. Based on an imagined meeting between two real-life Indian revolutionaries who fought the British Raj but never met, this opulent, eye-popping adventure is set […][...]
Review: A Man of Integrity
— by BEV QUESTAD — I took a year-long course in moral philosophy back in 1969-1970 at the American University of Beirut. Grading was based on each student’s individual growth in moral development as demonstrated by a series of interviews and essays regarding values. Our final essay topic was on the value of suffering. At […][...]
Review: Ithaka: A Fight to Free Julian Assange
— by WILLIAM STERR — The island of Ithaka symbolizes home: the end of the journey, the goal of the mythic trek. As such, it is taken from Homer’s “Odyssey.” The film “Ithaka: A Fight to Free Julian Assange” begins with the words of Nils Melzer, UN Rapporteur on Torture: “Torture is a tool used […][...]
Review: Vedette
— by BEV QUESTAD — There is much to learn about milk cows and their herd hierarchy. There is also much to learn about the similar ways we treat animals and each other. But, most dramatically, there is much to learn about Vedette, a queen cow with an instinct for battle. High in the Swiss […][...]