Homecoming
Turtle Creek native brings acclaimed documentary ‘Quest’ to Pittsburgh Filmmakers
“Quest” is an extraordinary verite documentary about the daily joys and challenges of a family living in North Philadelphia.
The film’s director, Turtle Creek native Jonathan Olshefski, spent more than 10 years on the project.
“I was committed to not being that sort of filmmaker who just parachutes in, gets the story and jumps out. I wanted to do this with these guys. … do this project with the community.”
What began as a still photography project featuring Christopher “Quest” Rainey, his wife, Christine’a (nickname: “Ma”), and their youngest child, Patricia, turned into a motion picture somewhere around 2006. “Quest” begins with the re-election of Barack Obama, an exciting event in a community that, like the Rainey family, has learned through experience to rely more on itself than the government.
The scope of their life, which included Mr. Rainey’s hip-hop “Freestyle Fridays” at the recording studio he runs as a producer in his home, kept evolving. Mr. Olshefski’s project evolved as well. There are moments touching and small — the patient routine of braiding hair as well as a shocking act of violence that resonates beyond the family.
Years passed. Mr. Olshefski kept at it, and it wasn’t until late in the process, when he finally received significant funding from sources such as public television’s Independent Television Service, that he reluctantly wound things up. It will air on PBS this fall as part of the network’s “POV” series.
“Eight years with nothing but a dream and a lot of blood, sweat and tears,” he said. “Then, the money started to come in around 2015 [from] Cinereach, [the] MacArthur [Foundation], ITVS.”
The documentary cost about $500,000 to make.
“The luxury of the film, the hardship of the film was having no support for eight years. Then, there was no pressure to finish, no pressure to kind of fast track and get it done,” he said. “It was all sort of my internal steam and the family’s willingness to go along.”
Mr. Olshefski is back in Pittsburgh this week for a special event at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. On Friday at 7 p.m., “Quest” will open at the Regent Square Theater, 1035 S. Braddock Ave., Swissvale, followed by a question-and-answer panel with Mr. Olshefski, local filmmaker Tony Buba and Pittsburgh hip-hop artist and activist Jasiri X. The documentary will play at the theater through Jan. 18.
Also on Friday, from 5 to 7 p.m., a popup photography exhibit of Mr. Olshefski’s “Quest” images will open at neighboring Concept Art Gallery, 1031 S. Braddock Ave., also through Jan. 18.
The film has received rave reviews.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more succinct definition of what it means to be a citizen, and I’ve rarely seen a movie about citizenship as quietly eloquent as ‘Quest,’ “wrote The New York Times’ A.O. Scott.
“The fact that we get not only one of the year’s best documentaries but also it’s one of the most humanistic looks at American life right before 2017 shuffles into history feels like a gift,” wrote Rolling Stone’s David Fear.
Mr. Olshefski and some of the Rainey family have appeared on the festival circuit, including the Sundance Film Festival last year. Terry Gross recently interviewed him on NPR’s “Fresh Air.” That his life has come to red carpet walks and champagne receptions is still somewhat unreal to him, given that “Quest” is his directorial debut.
Well, that isn’t entirely accurate. Growing up in Oakland, Squirrel Hill and then Turtle Creek, he borrowed friends’ video cameras to make “silly” little movies. At Trinity Christian School in Forest Hills, he and some friends shot skateboard videos they sold on the internet for $10 apiece.
Then, there was his magnum opus of amateur films — a trilogy shot between 1998 and 2002. Some had skating, but the middle film, “The Tale of Matthew Hricko,” starred an alternate version of Mr. Olshefski’s friend, Matthew Hricko.
Shot on Hi8 video, it featured a young man in love with a mannequin that is, ultimately, eaten by billy goats.
“Weprobably sold [tapes] in the dozens,” he said sheepishly. “This was a very DIY thing.”
Mr. Olshefski studied English literature and filmmaking at Temple University. After he took a few photography classes, the city of Philadelphia became his artist’s model.
“It was an amazing city to explore,” he said. “I was riding my bike around the city with my camera, and it was just an excuse to discover these places and locations, climb around abandoned buildings.”
He quickly discovered that people, if you ask to take their photo, will share some of their stories. So, “living cheap” with wages from a construction job, he was able to just hang out and make these connections.
“Philadelphia is a beautiful city, but it sort of needs a lot of love. I was trying to figure out what my role was in that.”
He began teaching photography, and one of his students was James Rainey, the brother of Quest. James thought it would be cool to bring Mr. Olshefski to Quest’s house, where maybe he could film some of the guys in the recording studio.
“When Quest and I first met, it was somewhat of an awkward interaction,” he said. “His brother did not give him a heads-up — we just showed up on the stoop.”
The initial suspicion of a white guy showing up in their predominantly African-American neighborhood passed quickly enough. It helped that Mr. Rainey was a big-time Pittsburgh Steelers fan and they found common ground. (The walls of the studio have black-and-gold Steelers artwork.)
“Over time, we built trust,” Mr. Olshefski said. He earned his own nickname (”Peter Parker”) for his Spider-Man penchant for climbing walls and furniture to get the shot.
One of the film’s remarkable achievements is Mr. Olshefski’s fly-on-the-wall ability to capture a community that he says, “should be defined by the love people have for each other, and not by the obstacles people face.”
There are scenes of Mr. Rainey at his job delivering newspaper circulars before dawn. On those nights, Mr. Olshefski slept over. As years passed, Mr. Olshefski started a family of his own: wife Holly, a therapist, and sons Caleb, 9, and Zeke, 4.
“Quest” is not all hope and sunshine in its focus; one of the studio’s most promising artists, a man called Price, is deep into addiction. At the beginning of the film, William Withers, Mrs. Rainey’s son from a previous relationship, has a girlfriend, a newborn son, and a malignant brain tumor. Now cancer-free, he is concentrating on taking care of Isaiah, who began kindergarten this year.
At the core of the Rainey family is daughter Patricia, known as P.J. Just a gradeschool child when the film shoot began, she literally grows up on camera. Some of it is painful to watch, but it also shows a family doing its best when life delivers the unexpected.
“This is not a PR campaign for the Rainey family. My job was to be truthful and honest in sharing their different layers, and they just happen to be a beautiful, incredible family,” Mr. Olshefski said.
Already at work on another film project, Mr. Olshefski has been spending time in South Dakota. The next profile, he said, will focus on three generations of a Native American family.
He’s “only” six years deep into this one.