Fergie Chambers is living proof that the rich are different from you and me. In Sinéad O’Shea's documentary All About the Money, he comes across as the definition of privilege: an exasperating, at times delusional multimillionaire with little concern for the consequences of his actions.
O’Shea builds her film around a utopian community Fergie established in Alford, Massachusetts. He bought land and several buildings, then paid volunteers to live there. They include Paige Berlanger, who arrives with her boyfriend Justin; Regi, a father and farmer; and Calisha, who says that she's trying to "just keep the place clean."
O'Shea backtracks to reveal the source of Fergie's wealth. His father James C. Chambers is a descendant of James M. Cox, founder of Cox Enterprises, one of the largest information conglomerates in the country. Chambers senior is worth over $5 billion, sits on the board of trustees of Bard College, and is an owner of the Atlanta Hawks.
In interviews, Fergie says rarely saw his father more than a week or two a year. After a troubled childhood in which he was institutionalized, he opted to redeem his share of Cox Enterprises for $250 million. Even if he gives $3000 away a day, he will make that back and more on interest.
In Alford, Fergie builds "a professional revolutionary training center." He encourages divisive political viewpoints, funds the Palestine Action US group, and helps organize a smoke bomb attack on drone manufacturer Elbit Systems in Merrimack. Paige in turn leads a demonstration against L.G. Harris, a weapons manufacturer.
After the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, Fergie's pro-Palestinian comments are an anathema to locals. In the aftermath of the demonstrations, Paige is arrested, Fergie flees the country, and the utopian community is shattered.
O'Shea catches up with Fergie in Tunisia, where he invests in a soccer team, marries Jullian Schnabel's daughter Stella, and divorces her to marry someone he later calls "a stranger."
Details keep piling up, all captured by O'Shea's dispassionate camera. Fergie ends up in Dublin, where he reveals more about his childhood while denying culpability for the lives he wrecked in Alford.
O’Shea covers a lot of ground in All About the Money, interviewing community members as well as Fergie's friends and adding trenchant archival footage. As she did Blue Room, her film about author Edna O'Brien, O'Shea slips contradictory facts seamlessly into the narrative.
Fergie may come across as reckless and callous, but in the doc he seems to be making an effort to reconcile his behavior. On the other hand, much of the filming took place during a publicity barrage by Fergie in which he agreed to profiles in several magazines. Then he tries to buy O'Shea's film to prevent its release, an understandable strategy given how he comes across.
Self-serving and duplicitous, Fergie Chambers is a gold mine for a documentarian like O'Shea. But should a narcissist be given a platform for ranting simply because he's rich? It's commendable that Fergie eventually seems to be trying to redeem himself, but notable that by the end he is still blaming others for his actions.
The film premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.