Top Things to Do This Labor Day Weekend
FILM
Portland Film Festival
Thursday–Sunday from noonish to 10 pm (or so), various locations
Oregon’s largest film fest—150+ films—returns with celebrity-studded screenings, workshops, and production of an original short film. (The script is courtesy of Randall Jahnson, writer of Oliver Stone’s The Doors, with the son of zombie-core guru George Romero flying in to direct.) Bonus: the short will attempt a Guinness World Record for most onscreen extras in a short film. You’re totes invited! (Check out PoMo's picks here.)
Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice: screening this Friday and Saturday.
CLOSING The Art of Reinvention: Paul Thomas Anderson and His Influences
Thursday–Sunday at various times, Whitseldl Auditorium
Anderson famously dropped out of film school after just two days. But the director of There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights gave himself an education no professor could beat. This weekend, NW Film Center's two-month 21-film series wraps with films with Howard Hawks, Anderson, and Scorsese, respectively.
- Thursday & Sunday at 7 pm — The Big Sleep
- Friday at 7 pm and Saturday at 4 pm — Inherent Vice
- Saturday at 7 pm — Goodfellas
Music
Along along the Waterfront Park: the Oregon Symphony rings out summer with a free concert series.
Oregon Symphony: Waterfront Festival
Thursday from 1 pm to 9:30 pm, Waterfront Park
Summer could have no more rousing farewell than this canonical—and cannon-firing—free concert. Tchaikovsky ends the night on a high note, with fireworks and the Oregon National Guard 218th Field Artillery.
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals: this Saturday at Edgefield.
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals
Saturday at 6 pm, McMenamins Edgefield
The two reunite for a touring act last seen six years ago (and in Brazil). Harper—a three-time Grammy Award winner known for rocking reggae-tinged blues/folk (and his anti-nike activism)—says it's time he and the hard-working touring band "pick up where we left off." In this case, with a yet-to-be-released new studio album
Art
OPENING Alien She
Thursday–Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm, Pacific Northwest College of Art
Curators Astria Suparak and Ceci Moss trace the legacy of the riot grrrl movement—from the rise of Girls Rock camps to the activism of Russian rockers Pussy Riot—through the works of seven North American multimedia artists.
Art in the Pearl
Saturday & Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm
The 19th annual open air fine arts and crafts fest brings the goods! From metalworking to home wares to sculpture, Portland’s top-ranked craft market (according to Art Fair Source Book) this year showcases over 100 artists—not to mention music, grub, and artsy activities for the kiddies.
Bill Papas drew on classical Greek culture for his festive watercolors.
OPENING Papas Retrospective
Saturday from 2 pm to 5 pm, Sunday from noon to 1 pm, Hellenic-American Cultural Center
Former British political cartoonist Bill Papas’ watercolors, acrylics and prints depict a Greek lifestyle imaginatively and with vivid color. Fifteen years after his untimely death (via plane crash), “My Passport to the People” grants a glimpse of the classic culture he loved. His wife will share insights on Papas’ legacy at the opening reception.
