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Church of Film presents Le altre
The movies are back, baby! After over a year deprived of the communal cinematic experience, it’s finally time to step into that huge, dark, air-conditioned room full of strangers again. This week, the Clinton is finally reaching into its film library and showing this unjustly underseen Italian drama from 1969, in which two fashionable women fall in love and live together in a pop-art apartment, where they long to have a child and build a family together. Italian censors in 1969 banned it for portraying lesbians too positively, sadly condemning the groundbreaking film to obscurity. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 503-238-5588, cstpdx.com. 8 pm Wednesday, June 30. $6.
Cinema Unbound Open Air Cinema Series at Lloyd Center
Last summer was all about the drive-in movie revival, for obvious reasons. This year, we’re getting out of our cars and stepping gingerly back into theaters. But for those who aren’t quite ready psychologically to sit in a dark room with strangers again, NW Film Center’s outdoor summer film series should help with the transition. Commandeering the rooftop parking garage at Lloyd Center, the series kicks off Fourth of July weekend with a triple-shot of crowd pleasers: Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Wonder Woman and reigning Best Picture winner Nomadland. Lloyd Center, 2201 Lloyd Center. 8:45 pm Thursday-Saturday, July 1-3. $20. See nwfilm.org/film-series/cinema-unbound-summer-movies-open-air-experiences for schedule and tickets.
Waterfront Blues Festival
Ain’t no fireworks, Brewers Fest or Pickathon this year, but at least one Portland summer tradition is making its return. Granted, the 2021 Waterfront Blues Festival is significantly different from the 33 editions that came before it. For one thing, it’s no longer taking place at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, instead moving upriver to the Lot at Zidell Yards, the socially distanced event space under the Ross Island Bridge where basically everything is happening in this post-pandemic transition season. Instead of thousands of people crowding the riverbank with towels and beach chairs, groups of up to six attendees can purchase tickets to sit inside fenced-in “pods.” And since the crowd will be stuck facing one stage, the total number of acts will also be drastically reduced, with four or five artists playing two separately ticketed shows each day. The lineup itself is also far more modest: There are no big headliners like Robert Plant or Buddy Guy, but plenty of local favorites, including Marchfourth, Hillstomp and Marc Broussard, plus the usual slate of killer zydeco acts. Your dad’s gonna be stoked regardless. The Lot at Zidell Yards, 3030 S Moody Ave., thelotatzidellyards.com. Thursday-Monday, July 1-5. See waterfrontbluesfest.com for schedule,
Comedy in the Park with Mohanad Elshieky
Comedy and the outdoors typically don’t mix—ask anyone who’s tried to watch a standup set at a music festival (or seen a comic try to go for a jog. Amiright, folks?!). But the pandemic forced many clubs’ hands: Last summer, Helium Comedy Club started throwing shows in its parking lot, and it went well enough for the venue to bring the concept back as a weekly showcase this year. Now, Kickstand is going one better and hosting comics in one of Portland’s most picturesque parks. This installment sees the return of Mohanad Elshieky, a WW Funniest Five finalist who’s currently living in New York writing for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Dylan Carlino, Dahlia Belle, Wendy Weiss and Andie Main will also join in, presumably to make a lot of jokes about dogs and pollen. Laurelhurst Park, SE Cesar E Chavez Blvd & Stark St., near Concert Grove. 6:30 pm Friday, July 2. Free. See kickstandcomedy.org/laurelhurst for more information.
Broken Harts
The new Discovery+ documentary Broken Harts certainly shares the same dose of forensic leering as other true-crime programs as it chronicles how a formerly Oregon-based mother fatally drove her family over a California cliff in 2018. The disbelieving tone of the film’s questions is familiar: How could this happen? What kind of monster would do this? Yet the most interesting voices of Broken Harts interrogate the dynamics of the racially mixed Hart family—white mothers who adopted two trios of Black siblings and made themselves mildly internet famous sharing pseudo-inspirational content. Oakland, Calif.-based journalist Zaron Burnett III clearly emphasizes the systemic failures that led up to the tragedy during his Broken Harts interview segments: Black children ripped from stable family members and numerous claims of child abuse against the couple that went ignored for years. “The responses I got to this documentary made me know it’s still important to keep telling these stories because people are still at the shock-and-outrage stage,” Burnett says. Broken Harts streams on Discovery+.
Oregon Bach Festival
Normally, attending the Grammy-winning Oregon Bach Festival requires a trip to Euegene. But this year, you can watch the festival for free and from your couch. Each day at noon, OBF releases a new, full length concert on its Vimeo, and after that, all of the show remains on demand. Hours of performances from world class talent are already available, and this week, the festival will drop videos of everything from a string quartet playing Mozart to piano concertos by 20th century women composers. It’s a unique chance to immerse yourself in classical music, especially if you usually find the genre inaccessible. oregonbachfestival.org. Through July 11,
Michelle Ruiz Keil in Conversation with Laini Taylor
Portland author Michelle Ruiz Keil’s debut, All of Us With Wings, was a young adult novel with punk rock edges, full of both magical realism and realistic trauma. Her followup, Summer in the City of Roses, is steeped in similar themes, interpolating both the Greek myth of Iphigenia and the Grimm fairy tale “Brother and Sister” to tell the story of two teenage siblings forcibly separated by their family one summer who try to find each other amid the landscape of ’90s Portland. There’s a “queer Robin Hood” on a bicycle, an all-girl punk band called the Furies, a pro-sex work undercurrent—basically, it’s the book you wish you had when you were a young adult, and could probably still use now. Keil discusses Summer in the City of Roses with fellow YA author Laini Taylor. 5 pm Tuesday, July 6. See powells.com/events-update for streaming registration.