Sinéad O’Shea’s new documentary All About The Money is a fascinating account of a wealthy heir who established a communist revolutionary camp in rural Massachusetts to fight the capitalist system he grew to hate.
It was never all about the money for Sinéad O’Shea.
Near the completion of her documentary on self-described communist revolutionary Fergie Chambers, the film’s subject reached out with an astonishing offer for the Irish filmmaker – he would fully fund the cost of the film if she agreed never to screen it. O’Shea refused and Chambers understood, but it’s easy to understand why he may have had reservations.
A portrait of the black sheep of one of the wealthiest families in American history and his extraordinary activism may sound like an inspirational tale for audiences, but the truth is far from straightforward and O’Shea thrives on diving deep into the nitty gritty of this fascinating character piece come sociopolitical study.
“This film isn’t black or white and I think there’s something very true about that. This is a very truthful film – it’s not suggesting that political change is easy to achieve, it’s not saying people are fundamentally heroic – it’s just trying to explain how complicated things are once you get into them. I think that’s something good, how truthful it is and that it doesn’t try to make everything seem neat in any way.”
Complicated may be an understatement – Chambers was heir to one of the largest family fortunes in America before cashing out (selling his stake in the family business back to relatives for a reported $250 million in 2023) in order to dedicate his resources towards relief efforts and full time activism across a broad range of charitable organizations and causes on a full time basis.
On the surface, there’s plenty to celebrate – Chambers has provided significant humanitarian aid in Gaza and helped spread awareness about the ongoing genocide through the Palestine Action USA group which he founded while also offering ongoing and seemingly endless financial support to individuals who simply just have to get in touch and appeal to their cause.
It’s a full time job and not one which O’Shea envies. “He does contribute to a lot of charitable organisations – in Palestine, towards people’s academic work – one person came up to me at a screening in Copenhagen who had actually received funding from him for a short documentary. He spends all day long navigating various asks for money – it would not be for me, this life – I would really hate it but it’s the life he’s chosen where he’s running a foundation and people are continuously applying for grants and making asks.”
Conflict arises and questions are raised however when we delve deeper into the everyday lives and figures involved in the causes on Chambers longlist. The film captures this tension brilliantly within the fascinating case study of Alford, Massachusetts where Chambers founded an ‘’intentional community” in 2019, providing free housing and even a regular income for residents of a 300 acre space which sought to develop a “liberatory training space” in which like-minded individuals could gather to combat the capitalist structures of modern America through building a peaceful housing and agricultural collective.
The commune appears an idyllic solution initially with joyous residents in awe of Chambers’ selflessness in providing so generously for their families, but the project is abandoned when Chambers flees to Tunisia in 2024, citing concerns about the US government tracking him and potentially looking to seize his resources due to his increasingly extremist online rhetoric expressing support of Hamas.
O’Shea understands why Chambers chose to leave. “I think on balance he made the right decision to leave America and that has been borne out by the events of the last few months. I don’t think he was paranoid to think that his resources were under threat and they have been funding lots of things, not just Alford. He makes meaningful donations to a lot of very worthwhile causes such as food amenities and surgeons in Palestine, there’s an awful lot of work that needs his financing – so I thought he made the correct decision.”
The events of recent months which O’Shea refers to is the recent arrest of Chambers this past July in Ibiza and his current detainment by the Spanish government at the request of US authorities who allege funding of foreign terrorist organisations. Chambers denies the charges and his legal team have accused the Trump administration of persecuting him for providing in the range of $10 million towards aid in Palestine, all of which he maintains was legal and philanthropic. All of which means we arrive at a uniquely delicate point in Chambers’ story, with All About The Money potentially even acting as evidence for Chambers should he be extradited to the US, as O Shea explains:
“How it turned out is really interesting because this case against him in the US is really focused on that period, and it might actually be helpful to him that it shows that Hamas weren’t really on his mind at that point.”
What was on his mind at that point didn’t exactly sit well with Alford residents though, as Chambers’ time in Tunisia seemed mainly to consist of him investing $8 million worth of sponsorship into Tunisian football outfit Club Africain before ultimately falling out with the club and moving to the next project.
O’Shea captures the hurt and abandonment felt by Chambers’ former commune as residents such as Paige are left to deal with the consequences while their former leader seemingly escapes the heat. It’s a reoccurring theme of Chambers’ approach as multiple causes often make way for the next mission, yet All About The Money is careful to keep the balance and depict the facts while leaving the judgement to its audience.
“I don’t think that’s my job as a filmmaker. I don’t think it’s good to have black or white opinions of a person, I think you have to be fairly open to them and open to the bigger picture of where they’re coming from and what they’re really trying to do.
All over the world there are people who are idealistic and in a position where they can commit themselves to a movement. It’s obviously not a hagiography – I didn’t agree with everything he said but I’m a journalist so I don’t have to agree with him to be able to work with him or report on what he says or what he’s doing. I guess what the film is about is how everyone has different objectives.”
Whatever your opinion on Fergie Chambers – and there are plenty to go around based on feedback O’Shea has received from screenings so far – it’s clear that the American represents a fascinating case study in the practicalities of enacting systematic change on a wide scale even with immense resources. It was fertile ground for the writer and director which couldn’t be ignored when she initially chanced upon her subject:
“I actually knew someone who had stayed in the commune for a time. When I asked them about it they mentioned Fergie so I googled him and I just thought it was a really interesting combination of factors, how he came from this exalted family of democrats with a grandfather who’d run for president and a grandmother who coded for NASA and even had a LEGO figurine made of her, really high achievers – and yet he was rebelling and revolting against all of these things, he despised the US system and capitalism and he wanted to create a revolutionary situation.”
How successful Chambers has been in opposing the system and building his revolution is open to debate and won’t be easily answered anytime soon pending the outcome of his ongoing extradition battle, but you sense there is more to come from this story and the greater context it contains within our modern hyper capitalist world.
For now, Sinéad hopes that the message we can find in All About The Money is a call to effect change ourselves as much as we can.
“We’re all seeking some deus ex machina or godlike force from above. I think we all do it, we all hope that someone is going to save us but actually we do need to save ourselves. We have to take as much personal responsibility as possible and that’s really not all that possible in some ways at the moment because wealth is concentrated in so few individuals and governments are much less powerful than they used to be. But I think anything which causes us to think or reflect is positive and provides us with some sort of stimulation. It’s a little crazy, but it’s good to have something crazy out there.”
Words: Andrew Lambert
All About The Money is in The Lighthouse Cinema and selected cinemas from October 30th.
