Review of HYN at the conventions...
Monday February 7th, 2005 |
Article from Time Out NY, by Christine Richmond. A good review and overview of the HYN team's adventures at the political conventions this summer.
"...expect plenty of laughs and unpredictable conversations."
read it here |
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What they're saying about HYN convention coverage...
Monday February 7th, 2005 |
"The highlight of tonight's election coverage...managed to cut through the hype in ways the pros often could not." - THE NEW YORK TIMES
"A welcome dash of purple on a blue state/red-state day." - ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"Though some have pegged it as exploitation, HYN is far from it - it's one of the few recent films to portray the impaired as anything other than stuttering, equation-solving Rain Men." - SPIN MAGAZINE |
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DVD review - 4 stars!
Sunday June 6th, 2004 |
"How’s Your News never seems mean spirited or nasty – it’s simply fun. Pure, simple fun. Everyone involved seems to have had a blast with the production and there are some seriously hilarious moments here that you just have to be see in order to appreciate. Highly Recommended."
read the full review at dvdtalk.com |
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DVD Review from Amazon.com
Friday June 4th, 2004 |
How's Your News? may not be the greatest road-movie ever made, but it's definitely a strong contender for runner-up honors. A Village Voice reviewer got it exactly right when he praised documentary filmmaker and disability camp counselor Arthur Bradford for "always knowing the difference between laughing at and laughing with," because that's a crucial distinction to make when confronting disability in politically correct America. Without a shred of condescension, Bradford hit the road from New Hampshire to Hollywood with Ron Simonsen (who has cerebral palsy), Larry Perry (advanced cerebral palsy), Robert Bird (Down Syndrome), Sean Costello (Down Syndrome), and Susan Harrington (mild retardation and legal blindness), who proceed to encounter everyday Americans with their cross-country "news team" interviews. Financed by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker (who include various disabled characters in their irreverent animated series), the resulting travelogue is a frequently hilarious, powerfully revealing (in-your-face disability tends to be a Rorschach test for human behavior), unexpectedly moving (as when Simonsen meets his TV hero, Chad Everett) and illuminating look at being "different" in a country that clings too tightly to the security blanket of conformity. How's your news? Thanks to these intrepid reporters, it's very good indeed! --Jeff Shannon (quadriplegic since 1979)
see it here! |
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Interview with director
Monday March 29th, 2004 |
A good, thorough interview with director Arthur Bradford conducted by Lawrence Carter-Long, a writer with cerebral palsy.
excerpt:
"Q: Is it true that the Sundance Film Festival refused to screen HYN because of the ‘subject matter’? Why do you feel the film spooked them, if so? Do you feel vindicated by the film’s success?
I’m not really sure why Sundance didn’t take us. It could be they just didn’t think it was a good film. But I think it’s also possible they were concerned about how people would perceive our intentions. I know many festivals had these concerns. They didn’t want to be seen as promoting something out to have a laugh at the expense of people with disabilities. But I wish these festivals would have had a little more backbone. HYN was shown to the cast and their families first and foremost, and if they’d had problems with it, we would have addressed those right away before showing it to anyone else. The cast and their families are all so proud of this film, it makes me a little upset to think that someone who doesn’t even know them would say, “You know what, this here is exploitation.”
I can get pretty riled up on this subject, but basically I’d like to say that I really question where those people are coming from. Are they suggesting people with disabilities shouldn’t be on film? That they should not be allowed to make mistakes and laugh at them like everyone else? Since HYN’s release we’ve had our strongest most positive responses from people with disabilities, their families, and groups set up to offer them support. The film is now used as a training video nationwide and has received awards from disability rights groups all over the world. So if Sundance or anyone else really had a problem with the subject matter and the way we handled it, I guess I’d feel pretty vindicated, but I’d also feel sad, because I know audiences there would’ve liked us, and we would have liked them too. Maybe next time."
go here for full article |
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From DEFECTIVE YETI
Thursday November 21st, 2002 |
"How's Your News is the best movie you'll probably never see..."
This is a great, in depth review. The reviewer saw the film at The Little Theater in Seattle and talks a lot about the various issues which it raised.
Check it out... |
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From Montreal
Sunday November 3rd, 2002 |
This is a review from the screenings in Montreal. Probably the longest review of HYN ever, and really examines the movie in depth. Worth a look...
"The highlight of the festival was, hands down, How’s Your News? - The Feature. I don’t even really feel comfortable discussing it within the context of Comedia or any other festival or categorization scheme. It has come seemingly out of nowhere, and cannot really be compared with anything else except its own predecessor, the How’s Your News? short film from a few years back. The How’s Your News? phenomenon is, for lack of a better word, unique. Not to say that it doesn’t have cousins in the world of film, or enter into a whole host of discourses surrounding documentary filmmaking. But we’ll get to all that in a moment. Regardless of its unavoidable existence within the world of the documentary, the film itself is an experience unlike any I have had before, and I would challenge anyone to tell me differently with respect to their own experience..."
Full Review |
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From THE BOSTON GLOBE
Thursday March 21st, 2002 |
An in depth review of the film and the screening in Boston. Interviews with the director and exec. producer John Pierson.
"A knockout...sweetly touching and often hilarious."
Go To Review |
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Chicago Tribune
Wednesday March 6th, 2002 |
"Sweet, Funny, and...Awkward."
Interviews with Ron, Sue and Director Arthur Bradford
See article |
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from TREMBLE.COM
Monday February 11th, 2002 |
"finally had a chance to see arthur bradford's documentary How's
Your News?, and i am so glad for it. i remember reading about this
film a year ago or more, in some pop culture magazine (the kind that
puts chloe sevigny on the cover, instead of tara reid. that's all i can
remember, though) and thinking that it was just a really smart and
interesting subject for a film. and it was...there are so many reasons
to recommend this movie. the cast is so
perfectly suited and wonderfully diverse, and clearly having just
about the best time of their collective lives. one of the interviewers,
for instance, approaches her job with an unflaggable amount of
professionalism, even when she is interviewing an angry homeless
man and an auto technician in arizona, from whom she demands to
know the status of the RV they brought in for repairs. (this interview
is particularly great to watch because the interviewer badgers the
staff of the repair shop with the polite tenacity of mike wallace.)
the film is touring now and will premiere on cinemax in january, but i
experienced an almost immediate need to see it again as soon as the
closing credits and theme song rolled away...."
view full article |
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