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April 13, 2016
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
Jazzing it Up on Alberta
The Harlem Quartet brings a new attitude to classical music
with a varied repertoire that includes works by minority
composers. The group performs Thursday, April 14 at 7:30
p.m. at the Alberta Rose Theater in northeast Portland.
Friends of Chamber Music present the
“Harlem Quartet,” a New York-based en-
semble dedicated to advance diversity in
classical music by engaging young audienc-
es through a repertoire that includes works
by minority composers.Named for the Har-
lem Renaissance, the quartet was founded in
2006 by the Sphinx Organization.
The group will perform the program
“Jazzing it Up” on Thursday, April 14 at
7:30 p.m. at the Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000
N.E. Alberta St. All seating is $40 general
admission, half-price reserved student tick-
ets, $5 student rush and $5 Arts for All tick-
ets, subject to availability. Call 503- 503-
764-4131 or visit focm.org.
Slate of Documentaries
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found he had struck gold with this
performer. This inspired film will
get a theatrical release in late May-
-expect a longer review from me
then. In the meantime, follow the
film on its website (magpictures.
com/presentingprincessshaw/)
and on Facebook.
3. “Weiner” is a surprisingly
illuminating window into the po-
litical career of former New York
Congressman Anthony Weiner,
who famously resigned his House
seat after an embarrassing “sex-
ting” scandal in 2011, and made a
bid for mayor of New York City
in 2013. One of the film’s direc-
tors, Josh Kriegman, served as
Weiner’s congressional chief of
staff before becoming a filmmak-
er, and the film benefits both from
his perspective on Weiner--much
more nuanced than the feeding
frenzy around his stupidest mis-
takes--and also from the more dis-
tanced perspective of his co-direc-
tor, Elyse Steinberg. They began
filming their documentary when
Weiner launched his mayoral bid
and were along for the ride when
new revelations about Weiner’s
former behavior restarted the me-
dia frenzy and derailed what had
been a promising return to politics.
What emerges is a very insightful
portrait of a smart politician with
good ideas that may well threaten
those at the top of the power struc-
ture, whose failings bring out the
worst in everyone else. If only the
media were as relentless in investi-
gating leaders who lie to Congress
about the basis for war as they are
about investigating salacious and
stupid behavior like Weiner’s. He
certainly suffers from the kind of
hubris and narcissistic tendencies
common to politicians, but actu-
ally also seems more self-aware
and willing to own up to his mis-
takes. In the end, it seemed to me
that this film, without ever directly
saying it, reveals more about what
is wrong with American politics
and the media--including how
much we love to have someone to
judge--than it does about Weiner’s
well-documented failings. It won
the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance
and will have a limited theatrical
release beginning in May.
4. “Sherpa” focuses on the ex-
perience of the Himalayan locals
who for decades have jeopardized
their lives in order to literally pow-
er the ambitions of wealthy adven-
ture junkies from mostly Western
countries who are intent on sum-
miting Mount Everest. These
guides glean a relatively small
slice of the economic benefit but
assume as much as 30 times more
risk than the tourists they assist,
who scarcely notice the effort that
goes into bringing them creature
comforts and transporting all their
equipment to the various camps
along the route. In 2014, a major
avalanche which cost the lives of
16 Sherpas brought these dynam-
ics to a head in surprising ways,
and the way the Nepalese govern-
ment and Westerner climbers and
expedition heads responded to the
concerns raised by the devastated
community of Sherpas as a result
is shocking and very telling. The
perspective of this marginalized
community turns out to be both
a literally and metaphorically
important window into the many
ways in which privilege affects
perception. It has won documen-
tary film awards in Australia and
will, I hope get a limited U.S. the-
atrical release, given the critical
acclaim that it has justly garnered.
Follow it on its website (sherpa-
film.com) and on Facebook.
5. “Kiki” won a Full Frame
Human Rights award, and was my
favorite of the films in competition
that we saw. It sheds a long-over-
due spotlight onto a particular
New York underground expres-
sion of ballroom, a flamboyant
performance-based art form that
has long been popular and life-sus-
taining among LGBTQ people of
color. The Kiki balls offer a safe
and empowered space for LGBTQ
youth of color to enact modes of
gender expression that often have
not been safe for them to express
elsewhere, and the Kiki communi-
ty provides a haven for a particu-
larly vulnerable youth population
disproportionably susceptible to
homelessness, violence, and HIV.
The film offers windows into the
scene and especially into the sto-
ries of seven people--their hopes,
their struggles, and the beauty they
each express on the runway and in
the world. It’s not an art form that
I know well, and a lot of the joy of
the film comes with the opportu-
nity to appreciate the courage and
tenacity it takes for these young
people to find a form of expres-
sion that feels authentically theirs.
Hearing their stories is important
and enriching, and motivated me
to continue to shake loose of the
ways in which norms of gender
conformity blind me and all of us
from seeing and appreciating real
beauty in the world. Hopefully the
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