Page 14
January 6, 2016
C LASSIFIEDS
Hiring for
Substitute Teacher at PPS
Requirements:
Oregon Teaching License
Apply at jobs.pps.net
Job # 2100013402
Obituary
In Loving Memory
Rhonda Henry
C ontinued from p age 8
Rhonda Henry was born Aug. 24, 1956
and died Dec. 30, 2015.
Funeral services will be held Saturday,
Jan. 9 at 12 p.m. at Morningstar Baptist
Church, 5927 N.E. 55th Ave. A public
viewing will be held at Morningstar prior
to the service from 11:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Drivers: Local, Home Nightly!
Portland Flatbed Openings.
Great Pay, Benefits! CDL-A,
1yr Exp. Req. Estenson
Logistics Apply
www.goelc.com
1-855-420-1374
Hiring for Paraeducator
Substitute at PPS
Requirements:
72 college credits
Apply at jobs.pps.net
Job # #2100013403
Need a ride to see
The
Advertise
with diversity
in
The
Portland
Observer
Call 503-288-0033
‘Tangerine’
Temptations
On Sunday, January 17th @ Spirit Mountain Casino
Les Femmes is hosting a bus ride fundraiser
Enjoy light hors d’oeuvres, good conversation and great raffle prizes
Donation: $10.00
Don’t want to attend the concert – come ride the bus and enjoy the fun
Bus departs from Portland at 4:00; Departs from Spirit Mt. at 11:30
For more information please contact:
Carmen Pettiford, Les Femmes President at 503.830.5732
Les Femmes is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
women, both already interested in
breaking into the entertainment
business but having had little op-
portunity to show what they could
do, to star in the film. Taylor and
Rodriguez educated the filmmak-
ers about “the block” and influ-
enced the shape the story took.
Give a listen to a terrific inter-
view that Taylor and Baker did
with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh
Air after you watch the film (npr.
org/2015/07/21/424966750/a-
downtrodden-l-a-corner-inspires-
comedy-and-friendship-in-tanger-
ine). Among other things, Taylor
talks frankly about her own life as
a former sex worker -- the oppres-
sion that drove her to that life and
the unthinkable challenges of liv-
ing it. She bravely participated in
the film during her own transition,
and it’s clear that her lived experi-
ences grounded this fictional story
in ways we don’t often see reflect-
ed on the big screen. I can’t imag-
ine that many people who have the
privilege necessary to make a film
even begin to realize and respond
to their own ignorance as Baker
did, which explains why we so
rarely see films that even attempt
stories as visceral as this one, or
that succeed in telling them so
truthfully.
The film is, at heart, a story of
the friendship between these two
women. It opens on Christmas
Eve with Sin Dee Rella (Rodri-
guez), just released from serving
a 28-day jail term, sharing with
her friend the single red-and-
green sprinkled donut she can af-
ford. Alexandra (Taylor) lets slip
what she thought Sin Dee already
knew: that her pimp/boyfriend/
fiancé Chester has been two-tim-
ing her with a “white fish” (a vul-
gar expression denoting a white
woman who is chromosomally
female). After Alexandra insists
that Sin Dee “look at me in my
eyes” and promise “no drama,”
Sin Dee nevertheless embarks on
a full-tilt quest to find “Desiree or
Destiny or Dee Dee” (it turns out
to be Dinah) and to communicate
in no uncertain terms to her and
to Chester that Sin Dee will not
be so disrespected.
The dreams of these Holly-
wood women drive the story.
Though daily life requires both to
field ridicule, harassment, and as-
saults, Alexandra (mostly) treats
Sin Dee’s hopes for Chester with
seriousness, and Sin Dee (most-
ly) accords dignity to Alexan-
dra’s dreams of music stardom,
even as Sin Dee knows her friend
has paid for the upcoming night-
club gig advertised on the hand-
made flyers Alexandra hands out
to everyone she meets. Eventual-
ly, after Sin Dee stomps through
the neighborhood in search of Di-
nah and then Chester, and Alex-
andra tussles with an errant john
and encounters an Armenian cab
driver who is clearly a frequent
customer (and has his own back
story), the various stories culmi-
nate in a cacophonous confron-
tation in the same donut shop
where we began.
Along the way, each character
has her or his moments of shame
and triumph, though often nei-
ther is fairly won. Life on these
streets is clearly full of just the
sort of drama Alexandra sought
to avoid; the stakes are always
high and resources are spare or
nonexistent. But on the advice of
Baker’s stars and collaborators,
the tone is mostly comic; these
women survive by their wits, and
that includes a balance of taking
themselves seriously and not seri-
ously at all. It’s a smart dramatic
choice that pulls you just deeply
enough into their chaotic world to
help you marvel appropriately at
their sheer guts. The very lives of
these women depend on reaching
for things that feel and even are
impossible, and this film helps
you both grieve for and admire
them.
Darleen Ortega is a judge on
the Oregon Court of Appeals and
the first woman of color to serve
in that capacity. Her movie review
column Opinionated Judge ap-
pears regularly in The Portland
Observer. Find her movie blog at
opinionatedjudge.blogspot.com.