The Fred Meyer Broadway Over America series presents Mary Poppins – with the musical production's first-ever African American featured actress.
In an interview with The Skanner News this week, actress Q. Smith said she exults in her edgy role as Poppins' viscious nemesis, Miss Andrew (as well as two other parts, Queen Victoria and Miss Smythe). Producers of the rollicking musical describe it as "not just a fluffy copy of the movie."

In terms of slavery in the Americas, most people assume that more Africans were brought to the U.S. than anywhere else in this hemisphere. But truth be told, only a tiny fraction were transported to this soil, with ten times as many being taken to Brazil, and even twice as many to Cuba.
This is just one of the fascinating factoids divulged in Blackin Latin America, a PBSspecial hosted by Harvard's Henry Louis Gates. A half-dozen countries serve as the focus of this four-part series, namely, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

At the top of the heap was "Mormon," which has taken Broadway by storm this season. It captured nine awards, including best musical, for its offensive yet good-natured look at two missionaries who arrive in Uganda and get way more than they bargained for, including gun-toting warlords

Clint Eastwood, Sidney Poitier, Helen Mirren, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Robbins and Forest Whitaker were among the stars who feted Freeman during a ceremony Thursday at Sony Studios, former home of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer, Super 8, Agrarian Utopia, Bride Flight, Just Like Us, Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?, Reversion, The Trip, Trollhunter, Viva Riva!

Since 9/11, Muslims have basically become the N-words of the new millennium, being indiscriminately demonized in much the same way young African-Americans were universally vilified by the FBI during the rise of the Black Power Movement. And it this similar sort of predicament which is sensitively explored in Mooz-Lum, a coming-of-age flick by Qasim "Q" Basir.

Comedian Paul Mooney will be performing from June 15 to 18 at Portland's Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave.
Tickets are available

Award-winning filmmaker, Keith Beauchamp found his calling while making his first documentary about Emmett Louis Till. Beauchamp has become a passionate advocate for survivors seeking justice for victims and has assisted the FBI by developing new leads for some of the still unsolved cases from this shameful troubled chapter in American history. Here, director/producer/host Beauchamp talks about The Injustice Fileswhich airs on the Investigation Discovery Network

The release of a prequel is normally a sign that a franchise is running out of steam. But that isn't the case with X-Men: First Class, a very worthy extension of the Marvel Comics franchise. This classic "origins" episode is devoted to the derivation of Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr's (Michael Fassbender) superpowers and to these archenemies' emergence as Professor X and Magneto, respectively.

Weekly Previews For Movies Opening June 3