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Films about Vietnam, cross-dressing

MIT professor John Southard in “A Chance to Dress.”Jonathan Rutherford

A nadir in America’s self-image, the Fall of Saigon occurred 40 years ago on April 28. Once considered a key domino preventing Asia from falling Communist domination, the country is now a popular vacation destination. Good thing we learned from that experience.

Rory Kennedy’s Academy Award-nominated documentary “Last Days in Vietnam” (2014) returns to those desperate times to recall how the handful of US diplomats and military personnel still remaining in the country scrambled to maintain order as the South Vietnamese army crumbled before the advances of the North. Their priority: withdraw as many of their local allies as possible to save them from certain reprisals.

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Grim, infuriating, controversial, and inspiring, the film will be shown to acknowledge the anniversary on Tuesday on PBS at 9 p.m. as part of the American Experience series. It will also be available on that date in DVD ($24.95) and Blu-ray ($29.95) versions from PBS distribution.

For more information go to
www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/lastdays

Dress fancy

Once practiced in secrecy, cross-dressing has grown in acceptance to the point where practitioners can share their lifestyle without fear of intolerance — at least, that’s the hope. Local documentarian Alice Bouvrie’s “A Chance to Dress” (2015) celebrates John Southard, who, when he’s not working hard as a world-renowned geologist and professor at MIT, relaxes by donning stylish women’s clothes.

In the film, Southard shares his struggle from the days of repression and the trials of coming out to the joy of full disclosure and liberation. As a geologist, Southard probes and analyzes the strata and depths to determine what makes up the world; in his avocation he explores the nature of gender, social roles, and identity.

The film screens on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts. A discussion follows with the director, and Southard and his wife, Jean.

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For more information go to www
.mfa.org/programs/film/a-chance-to-dress-0

Quick cuts

When his son was killed in 2011, one of 100,000 casualties since 2006 in the war on drugs, renowned Mexican poet Javier Sicilia decided to act. He initiated mass protests and began an international movement for peace. Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway tell his story in the documentary “El Poeta” which premieres Friday 10 p.m. on WGBH as part of the PBS series Voces. For more information go to www.pbs.org/program/voces

Congratulations to Cambridge documentarian and film critic Gerald Peary whose new film “Archie’s Betty,” an homage to and history of the iconic comic book, premiered on April 18 at the Buenos Aires Film Festival. While there he learned that in its Latin American version Archie goes by the name “Archie Gomez” and his friends Reggie and Jughead are known, respectively, as “Carlos” and “Torombolo.” Perhaps the subject of a sequel. “Archie’s Betty” will have its local premiere at the Institute of Contemporary Art on May 30.
For more information go to
www.facebook.com/pages/Archies-
Betty/1638526546375839?fref=ts

Peter Keough can be reached at petervkeough@gmail.com.