Two documentaries at the Cleveland Museum of Art sound interesting this weekend. Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story revisits a 1965 NBC interview, in which an African-American waiter named Booker Wright spoke openly to TV reporters and later paid the price. The son of the original filmmaker returns to Mississippi in this film to examine the effects of that original story. Here’s a trailer.
That’s on Friday evening at 7:00 pm. On Sunday at 1:30 you can see Portrait of Wally, which examines the struggle between museums and the Jewish families whose art was stolen by the Nazis. The docs John brings to the art museum almost always sound intriguing to me.
Tanner, ’88 plays out on two more Wednesdays at the Museum at 6:45. Robert Altman and Garry Trudeau, an impressive duo, created this HBO political mini-series almost twenty-five years ago. It’s a send-up of political campaigning, following Michael Murphy around as Jack Tanner, a liberal entering the Democratic primaries.
John was telling me how funny the first episodes were last week. I watched a little on dvd and was amused but as much as John. Although the political themes are certainly relevant, it mostly seemed mannered and too familiar. It does provide a witty and ironic antidote to this dreary political campaign season.