Sinéad O’Shea’s unrewarding, unfocused documentary looks at the wealthy Fergie Chambers, a man who fights against his family background.
Image courtesy of Modern Films.
by MANSEL STIMPSON
In order to make this film the Irish director Sinéad O'Shea devoted herself to the project for two and a half years over which period she would intermittently film James Cox Chambers Jr, a man who chooses to be known as Fergie Chambers. His story is a most unusual one since his great-grandfather founded Cox Enterprises, a business so successful that the family became immensely wealthy, but being its heir led Fergie to reject that role. However, if his communist beliefs and his hatred for American capitalism caused him to take that stand, it nevertheless led to Fergie receiving a multimillion-dollar payment for relinquishing his claim. Consequently, he has become a man so wealthy that he continually gives money away without that ever affecting his means. To be in that situation and yet to hold onto the views that he has developed (an LA magazine quoted him as saying "I chant death to America every day”) marks him out as being in all probability a unique figure. But whether that makes him suited to being the central figure in an observational documentary is doubtful.
I previously came across the work of Sinéad O'Shea when I saw her 2024 documentary Blue Road – The Edna O'Brien Story. Made in the writer’s last years, it was an appealing work that was all the more attractive because of the close bond that developed between O'Brien and the filmmaker during the shooting of it. Just how sympathetic an undertaking that was became ever more evident as it proceeded. That would prove to be in marked contrast to the experience of making All About the Money. O'Shea must have been aware from the start that Chambers was a subject of a totally different kind being someone whose behaviour was controversial and needed to be questioned. She is indeed willing to follow that path although when she began she could probably not have guessed how his life would develop. In the event what she captured on camera is far from satisfying even if it does have an extraordinary man at its centre.
All About the Money begins in 2023 at a time when Fergie Chambers was running a collective at Alford in rural Massachusetts on land purchased by him. In addition to a community centre and gym, it comprised six residential homes which were made available rent free to people who to some extent shared his attitudes and beliefs. We meet several of those living there among whom the most prominent is Paige Belanger. She was one of the participants in action that targeted the Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems and came to face charges and a jail sentence in consequence. By that time Chambers had done what she could not afford to do in that he had escaped being implicated by fleeing to Tunisia where there was no risk of extradition. Although he would much later help Paige out by making a payment to her, he initially refused any financial aid and she came to question her wisdom in relying on a rich benefactor.
The outlook of Fergie Chambers was such that he hated Donald Trump and imperialism and was supportive of Palestine and for many that might suggest that he could well have a deeply sympathetic side. However, it is also clear that he supports Hamas and that as an admirer of President Putin he approves of the war against Ukraine. It has to be admitted that hateful people sometimes have charisma but as seen here Chambers quite lacks that. Although what we learn of him in this film is not without interest, his company is in every sense deeply off-putting. Despite having agreed to this film being made, he proves to be a less than engaging interviewer and one unwilling to be forthcoming. He has the opportunity to speak openly since the film does in fact follow him to Tunisia and touches on his personal life. It was there that he would marry Julian Schnabel's daughter Stella whom he had known in his childhood and he also became involved in funding a football club, Club Africain, which later led to questions being asked. Ever ready to fit fully into a new setting, he would choose to wear Muslim dress and embraced Islamism, albeit that he subsequently claims that his belief does not mean that he prays regularly. Later still he would move again, this time to Ireland.
As for O’Shea's film, just when you think that Massachusetts has been left behind the scenes in Tunisia are interweaved with further footage in America which rounds out in some detail what happened to Paige Belanger. At the midway point in the film, we have heard about the troubled childhood of Fergie Chambers (a father who was frequently absent, mental problems, drugs for a while) but only very late on does he talk about being raped by a roommate as a youngster and obtaining money for drugs by having sex with older men. How this may have been relevant in making him the man he now is never becomes clear and, if bisexuality is a possibility, it is neither admitted nor denied. One senses throughout that Chambers does not wish to reveal himself and indeed even by the end of the movie you feel that he is somebody who is deliberately elusive.
Had Chambers been willing to be more open O’Shea’s approach might have yielded a worthwhile film as a telling portrait of a man who however unappetising is an intriguingly unusual individual. But, given his manner in front of the camera, one feels that to have a biopic about him that would have been really rewarding it needed to take the form of an outsider’s investigative inquiry. As it is, we learn something but never enough to satisfy. Arguably the film’s most striking moment comes at its close with the revelation that following completion of O'Shea's documentary Chambers offered to pay her if she would withdraw it. But that request and O'Shea's rejection of it is, alas, only covered by a brief written statement for we never see or hear it.
Featuring Fergie Chambers, Paige Belanger, Stella Schnabel, Regi, Jade, Calisha, Justin, Sinéad O’Shea.
Dir Sinéad O’Shea, Pro Sinéad O’Shea, Katie Holly, Claire McCabe, Sigrid Dyekjer and Harry Vaughn, Screenplay Sinéad O’Shea, Ph Enda O’Dowd, Ed Enda O’Dowd, Music George Brennan.
SOS Productions/Real Lava/Screen Ireland-Modern Films.
95 mins. Ireland/Denmark. 2026. UK Rel: 30 October 2026. Cert. 15.
