Quest | American Documentary Inc.

Quest

POV Season 31

Feature Film
2018
90 Mins

Filmed with vérité intimacy for nearly a decade, QUEST is the moving portrait of a family from North Philadelphia. Beginning during the Obama presidency, Christopher "Quest" Rainey and his wife, Christine'a "Ma Quest," raise a family while nurturing a community of hip-hop artists in their basement home music studio. Epic in scope, QUEST is a vivid illumination of race and class in America and a testament to love, healing and hope. Official Selection, 2017 Sundance Film Festival. A co-production of ITVS and American Documentary | POV. A co-presentation with Black Public Media.

Dark Money

Feature Film
2018

Feature Film

Dark Money, a political thriller, examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials. The film takes viewers to Montana frontline in the fight to preserve fair ...

Survivors

Feature Film
2018

Feature Film

Through the eyes of Sierra Leonean filmmaker Arthur Pratt, Survivors presents an intimate portrait of his country during the Ebola outbreak, exposing the complexity of the epidemic and the sociopolitical turmoil that lies in its wake. During one of the ...

Voices of the Sea

Feature Film
2018

Interview

Revealing stark realities for the poorest of rural Cubans with unique access and empathy, this is the story of a 30-something mother of four longing for a better life. The tension between wife and aging husband—one desperate to leave ...

Nowhere to Hide

Feature Film
2018

Clip

Nowhere to Hide follows nurse Nori Sharif through five years of dramatic change in one of the world's most dangerous and inaccessible areas: the "triangle of death" in central Iraq. Initially filming stories of survivors and the hope of a ...

Still Tomorrow

Feature Film
2018

Interview

A village woman with no high school diploma becomes China's most famous poet, and her book of poetry the best-selling such volume in China in the past 20 years. Still Tomorrow follows Yu Xiuhua, a 39-year-old woman living with cerebral ...

Whose Streets?

Feature Film
2018

Feature Film

When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of the St. Louis area and beyond. Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the ...

Lindy Lou, Juror Number 2

Feature Film
2018

Feature Film

For 20 years, Lindy has lived with an unbearable feeling of guilt. Committed to fulfilling her civic duty, Lindy sat with 11 other people on a jury that handed down the death penalty to a Mississippi man convicted of a ...

Singing With Angry Bird

Feature Film
2018

Feature Film

Jae-Chang Kim runs a children's choir in Pune, India. Although his quick temper earned him the nickname "Angry Bird," he has made significant changes in the lives of the choir children. But skeptical of the practical value of music ...

Bill Nye

Feature Film
2018

Feature Film

Bill Nye is a man on a mission: to stop the spread of anti-scientific thinking across the world. The former star of the popular kids' show "Bill Nye the Science Guy" is now advocating for the importance of science, research ...

StoryCorps Shorts: The Temple of Knowledge

Short Film
2018

Short Film

Ronald Clarkâs father was a custodian of a branch of the New York Public Library at a time when caretakers, along with their families, lived in the buildings. With his daughter, Jamilah, Ronald remembers literally growing up in a ...

A Conversation with My Black Son

Short Film
2018

Short Film

For generations, parents of black boys across the U.S. have rehearsed, dreaded and postponed âThe Conversation. But when their boys become teenagers, parents must decide how to handle discussions about race. In this short film originally published by ...

Mother's Day

Short Film
2018

Short Film

Once a year on Mother's Day, a charity bus service takes children to visit their mothers in prison across California. Nearly one in ten of the state's children have a parent in prison. Many are unable to regularly ...

Cameraperson

Feature Film
2017

Feature Film

A boxing match in Brooklyn; life in postwar Bosnia; the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife; an intimate family moment at home: these scenes and others are woven into a tapestry of footage captured over the twenty-five-year career of cinematographer ...

Motherland

Feature Film
2017

Feature Film

Motherland is an absorbingly intimate, vÃ©ritÃ© look at the busiest maternity hospital on the planet, in one of the world's most populous countries: the Philippines. Women share their stories with other mothers, their families, doctors and social workers ...

The Islands and The Whales

Feature Film
2017

Feature Film

On the isolated North Atlantic archipelago of the Faroe Islands, the longtime hunting practices of the Faroese are threatened by dangerously high mercury levels in the whales, decimated seabird populations, and anti-whaling activists. The Faroe islanders consider themselves a canary ...

Swim Team

Feature Film
2017

Feature Film

Parents of a boy on the autism spectrum form a competitive swim team, recruiting other teens on the spectrum and training them with high expectations and zero pity. Swim Team chronicles the extraordinary rise of three diverse young athletes, capturing ...

My Love, Don't Cross That River

Feature Film
2017

Feature Film

89-year-old Kang Gye-Yeol and 98-year-old Jo Byeong-Man are married and have lived together for 76 years. While Kang and Jo spend every day like a newlywed couple, they now must face the reality of their aging romance. My Love, Don ...

The Grown-Ups

Feature Film
2017

Feature Film

In a school for individuals with Down Syndrome, four middle-aged friends yearn for a life of greater autonomy in a society that marginalizes them as disabled. The Grown-Ups is a humorous and at times sad and uncomfortable look at the ...

Raising Bertie

Feature Film
2017

Feature Film

Raising Bertie is an intimate portrait of three African American boys as they face a precarious coming of age in rural Bertie County, North Carolina. Like many rural areas, Bertie County struggles with a dwindling economy, a declining population, and ...

Tribal Justice

Feature Film
2017

Feature Film

In Tribal Justice, two Native American judges reach back to traditional concepts of justice in order to reduce incarceration rates, foster greater safety for their communities and create a more positive future for youth. By addressing the root causes of ...

Lesson Plan

Grades 9-10

Addressing Trauma Using Affective and Cognitive Skills

Reading List

QUEST Delve Deeper Reading List

Film Credits

Jonathan Olshefski
Sabrina Schmidt Gordon

Press Room

POV: 'Still Tomorrow' | Defying Social and Cultural Norms, a Rural Poet Captures a Nation’s Attention POV: 'Whose Streets?' | Tracing a People’s Movement POV: 'The Workers Cup' | The sacrifice of migrant workers for the World Cup

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