DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
POV: "QUEST"
June 18, 2018  | By David Bianculli

PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

 

Tonight marks the TV premiere of Quest, the 2017 documentary by Jonathan Olshefski about a North Philadelphia family, shot over a decade that included and outlasted the years of the Obama administration. The passage of time, and the quiet, unobtrusive focus of the camera’s focus, takes Quest and Christine’a Rainey and family on a voyage neither they nor the viewer could have predicted. Quest is a program likely to make you laugh and gasp, smile and cry – and ponder long after you’ve pushed away from the TV. Olshefski, a first-time filmmaker, is a friend and colleague at the same Radio, TV and Film department at Rowan University where I teach, but my enthusiasm for Quest has nothing to do with that. If anything, were it any less powerful and meaningful, I might well have avoided mention of Quest simply to avoid any implied conflict of interest. But work this excellent cannot go unmentioned, or unrewarded, and the Rainey daughter (seen in this 2016 photo with the filmmaker, at far left, and her parents) is my new hero. Watch tonight’s P.O.V., and she’s bound to be yours, too. Check local listings.

 
 
 
 
 
Leave a Comment: (No HTML, 1000 chars max)
 
 Name (required)
 
 Email (required) (will not be published)
 
GNWVU
Type in the verification word shown on the image.