"Quest" is the story of 10 years in one family's life. The film opens with the marriage of Christopher and Christine’a (known as "Ma Quest," even though she says,"I don't want to be everybody's mom but somewhere along the line, they just started calling me Ma.") The couple had been together for years, and both came into the relationship with adult children from prior relationships. They have one child together, a girl named P.J., 8 years old at the start of the film, who wants to be a drummer, or maybe a DJ. Christine'a works in a homeless shelter and Chris has an early-morning paper route. One of Christine'a's adult sons, William, lives with them. He has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and has an infant son. We get to know the family's routines. Christine'a braids Chris' hair, braids P.J.'s hair. The black cat purrs in P.J.'s lap. Chris walks P.J. to the school bus, quizzing her on the Presidential campaign going on (Obama's re-election). And every Friday night, the rappers show up to freestyle in the basement.
Only 90 minutes long, the film feels intimate and yet at the same time vast. It has a relaxed pace, but an intensity of focus. Editor Lindsay Utz had to sift through 300 hours of footage and somehow craft it into a narrative. The project started when Chris Rainey's brother took Olshefski to visit Everquest Recordings. Olshefski had never made a documentary before, and he initially thought of doing a photography project about Everquest, but eventually abandoned that idea and decided to broaden the scope. What interested him was Chris and Christine'a, as people. They are both riveting to watch, and even more so to listen to. Maybe it is because they approach life from a thoughtful and deep place, even as the slings and arrows come at them from every which way. They opened themselves to the filming process, they allow us to see them, in times good and bad. There is not a sense of exploitation here, even when things get really tough (and they get extremely tough). The couple is a co-creator in this project with Olshefski. He embedded himself in the family, more or less, for the next decade. We see William struggling with chemo, Christine'a reveling in being a grandmother, Chris taking one of "his" rappers—a talented but troubled young man named Price—to task for going down the wrong path. Halfway through the film comes a random tragedy that will mark P.J.—and the family—forever.
What makes "Quest" special is that none of these story elements are prioritized as more important than others. It's all important. Because that's how life is, on the ground, as you are living it. It's not that the film doesn't make its points. It does. But the narrative cannot be boiled down into a cliched Thesis Statement. Since it takes place over the course of a decade, it is clear what does change and what does not. Moments where news items flash on the TV screen in the house—Obama's re-election night, Obama's post-Sandy Hook speech, Hurricane Sandy—anchor the film down into specific dates, but other than that, Olshefski gives an impression of the flow of time.
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