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)
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.
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