Spotlight: Whitworth to screen Kaplan documentary
John Kaplan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who worked at The Spokesman-Review in the early 1980s, will present a documentary about his battle with lymphoma at Whitworth University on March 15.
Kaplan enlisted the help of his doctors, family “and even Mother Teresa and a rock star” to make his film, according to a news release from Whitworth. The film, “Not as I Pictured: A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographer’s Journey Through Lymphoma,” started airing on PBS stations in September and has won several film festival honors.
The Whitworth screening will begin at 7 p.m. in the Robinson Teaching Theatre in Weyerhaeuser Hall. Admission is free. For information, call (509) 777-4739.
Kaplan won the Pulitzer for feature photography in 1992 for a series of photographs depicting the diverse lifestyles of 21-year-olds. He was working for Block Newspapers of Toledo, Ohio, at the time.
Sings and strings
Mezzo-soprano JoAnne Bouma will join the Spokane String Quartet for a concert at 3 p.m. March 11 at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox.
Hugo Wolf’s “Italian Serenade,” as well as five songs inspired by the poetry of Eduard Morike, will open the concert. Also on the program: Johannes Brahms’ “Two Songs for Contralto, Viola and Piano,” Ernest Chausson’s “Chanson perpetuelle” and Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major.
Pianist Linda Siverts also will perform. The quartet features violinists Mateusz Wolski and Amanda Howard-Phillips, violist Jeannette Wee-Yang and cellist Helen Byrne.
Tickets are $18 for adults and are available at the Fox ticket office, (509) 624-1200, or TicketsWest outlets, www.ticketswest.com or (800) 325-SEAT.
A festival of Jewish films
The Magic Lantern Theatre will host a festival of Jewish films, beginning March 22.
The Spokane Jewish Cultural Film Festival will feature four films: 7:30 p.m. March 22, “Ahead of Time,” a documentary about Ruth Gruber, who earned a Ph.D. at age 20 and went on to become a New York Herald Tribune reporter and photographer; 8 p.m. March 24, “Mahler on the Couch,” a film from director Percy Adlon and his son, Felix, about the marriage of Gustav Mahler and his wife, Alma; 6:30 p.m. March 25, a double-feature of “Viva Espania: A Tale in Four Octaves,” which explores the life of Israeli singer Hanna Ahroni, and “Degania: The World’s First Kibbutz Fights its Last Battle,” a documentary about the kibbutz established in 1910 on the banks of the Jordan River and its battle with privatization.
Tickets are $10 for adults and are available at www.sajfs.org/ Jewish_Film_Festival.html, or at the Magic Lantern box office, 25 W. Main Ave., before each show. A dessert reception will be held at 7:30 p.m. March 24, before the “Mahler” screening. Tickets for both are $18, or $10 for the film only.
Speaking of film festivals
The Advocates for the Bing Crosby Theater have a program of suspense planned for the annual spring film series.
The Best of the Suspense Classics festival kicks off Tuesday with the first of two films starring James Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece “Vertigo.” The film noir classic “Double Indemnity,” starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck, will be shown March 21. Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” starring Tippi Hedren, will be screened April 3. The festival concludes April 17 with the second Stewart film, Otto Preminger’s excellent courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Murder.”
These are all great films, and all worth a look on the big screen. “Anatomy of a Murder” in particular is one to see if you’ve not seen it before. It features a classic Stewart performance – it earned him his fifth and final Oscar nomination for best actor. George C. Scott co-stars in one of his earliest film roles – and one that earned him his first Oscar nomination, for best supporting actor. Lee Remick and Ben Gazzara play the couple at the center of the action – she as a woman who is raped and he as her husband on trial for killing her assailant. Pretty risqué material for 1959.
“Anatomy of a Murder” was one of the first films to use a jazz score, which was composed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn and performed by Ellington’s orchestra. It went on to win two Grammy Awards.
Showtimes are 7 p.m. Admission is free, but a $5 donation is suggested. For details visit www.bingcrosbytheateradvocates.org.
A festive night out
On Saturday, Spokane Symphony supporters are invited to dress in “creative black tie attire” for an evening of live music, food and drink at a Venetian Masquerade Ball.
Spokane swing band 6 Foot Swing will provide the music, and the Fox stage will become a dance floor. The food is being catered by the Glover Mansion, and Arbor Crest is providing the wine.
Tickets are $50 and proceeds will support the symphony. They are available through the Fox box office or TicketsWest.
So what exactly is “creative black tie”? Symphony officials can’t and won’t say. The only rule is that masks are required. The rest is up to you.
For more information, visit www.spokanesymphony.org.