''Quest'' is a 2017

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

following a north-

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

family over eight years.

Synopsis

''Quest'' follows the north-Philadelphia Rainey family over eight years.

Release

''Quest'' premiered on January 22, 2017 at the Sundance Film Festival. It was also screened at the True/False Film Festival and the

Zurich Film Festival Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) is an annual film festival that has been held in Zürich, Switzerland, since 2005. The festival's main focus is to promote emerging filmmakers from all over the world. In three competition categories only first, secon ...

, among others. It was released theatrically on December 8, 2017. After its theatrical release, it was aired on the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

show '' POV''.

Critical response

''Quest'' was met with positive reviews from critics during its festival screenings. Guy Lodge of ''

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'' gave the film a positive review, writing that director Olshefski and editor Utz "beautifully

arve The Arve (french: L'Arve, ) is a river in France (''département'' of Haute-Savoie), and Switzerland (canton of Geneva). A left tributary of the Rhône, it is long, of which 9 km in Switzerland. Its catchment area is , of which 80 km2 ...

out a film that feels at once narratively firm and organically shaped from over 300 hours of footage across the years." Brian Tallerico, writing for RogerEbert.com, wrote that ''Quest'' "transcends that simple set-up to feel like something greater through the marvelous likability and relatability of the Raineys." On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

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, the film has a "certified fresh" approval rating of 98% based on 60 reviews, and an average rating of 7.88/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Simultaneously sweeping and intimate, ''Quest'' uses one family's experiences to offer trenchant, wide-ranging observations about modern American life." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". ''Quest'' was nominated for the 2018

Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature The Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards. It is given to the director(s) of the film and since 2014 it is also given to the producers. It was first presented in 2000, with Marc Singer ...

. After airing on television, ''Quest'' was nominated for the 2019

News and Documentary Emmy Award The News & Documentary Emmy Awards, or News & Documentary Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Scien ...

for Outstanding Documentary and Outstanding Social Issue Documentary.

References

External links

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''Quest''
on '' POV'' * * * *{{mojo title, quest2017 2017 films 2010s English-language films 2017 documentary films American documentary films Films shot in Philadelphia 2010s American films