Description: Five outgoing reporters with mental and physical disabilities hit the road, traveling coast to coast in a hand-painted RV, interviewing everyone they meet. Follow the news team as they explore honky-tonk bars in Nashville, alligator farms in Arkansas, the Grand Canyon and the wild streets of America’s cities and towns. Unassuming, funny, and genuine to the core, this is not your typical news show.
• Awards include Official Selection of the Toronto International Film Festival; Winner—Audience Award and Best Feature—Just For Laughs Film Festival; Winner—Best of Festival and Audience Award—Woods Hole Film Festival.
• The film had a limited theatrical run and debuted in 2002 as part of the Cinemax Reel Life series. It has been rebroadcast several times.
• The How’s Your News? theme song is featured on the Howard Stern show in the Robin Givens news segment daily and Stern frequently talks about HYN.
Special Features:
• Interview by HYN reporters with executive producers Matt Stone and Trey Parker (South Park) about their involvement in and enthusiasm for How’s Your News?
• Original 24-minute pilot episode filmed in 1998.
• Independent Film Channel’s series Split Screen featurette on the project’s origin.
• HYN reporter Ron’s meeting with Chad Everett after the film wrapped.
• Film festival and post-screening concerts video.
• Audio presentation of NPR radio show "This American Life"’s insightful story about HYN.
Amazon.com: 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)
would you like to chase the blues awaaaaay? This is a great example of the perseverance of the mentally and physically challenged. I am so glad someone made this happen for these people, it was very nice of them, and it's hilarious.
Such a great documentary! If you have ever had a family member, friend or client with a disability, please see this film. It's a delightful documentary about 5 people with disabilities who become people-on-the-street interviewers and do a wonderful job.
The music is wonderful, too as are the special scenes.
not clear what the point is After a recommendation this arrived via Netflix. The fact that the "laughing with them, laughing at them" dichotomy must be explored at all is a major failing. Disappointingly, I think most viewers will inevitably shade to the latter. While the premise of the movie, i.e., a cross-country trip and accompanying filmic narrative, is compelling and nominally empowering for the participants, the audience is left only to chuckle and casually observe, not truly engage, empathize or otherwise understand those in the movie. There are far superior efforts at engaging those who are mentally and physically disadvantage or otherwise "different."
Incredible Film ! This film was brilliant. If everyone in the world followed the free-spirit that these five friends have, we would live in a much better place. I hope through this film, others will see that people with disabilities are the more "normal" of us in our society, and we can learn a lot more from them than we think. My 8,10 and 13 yr old children watched intently, and loved every minute of the film. They can't wait to meet Ronnie one day, and are so impressed that their Mom is friends with someone famous~! GREAT JOB!
A vision of how life should be This is, quite simply, a must-own. Note that I did not call it a must-see, but a must-own. You will be forcing your friends to watch this film, and you will be visiting the How's Your News website so you can buy the soundtrack. I'm betting that this is the best 17 dollars you've spent all year -- no joke. Buy it!
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