Black, White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff & Robert Mapplethorpe 

Anchorage Museum, Movies for Your Mind

June 21 & 22 at 6 p.m.

Sam Wagstaff pulled Robert Mapplethorpe from a Queens suburb and handed him a camera. Mapplethorpe pulled Wagstaff from a stuffy, upper-class existence and brought him to the heights of passion. 

Yale-educated and born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Sam Wagstaff’s transformation from innovative museum curator to Robert Mapplethorpe’s lover/patron is portrayed in this engrossing documentary. The NYC art world was abuzz with a new spirit during the heady years of the ’70s and ’80s. Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe was at the center of that world, with images that provoked reactions from awe to anger. 

Documentary. Not rated but contains some sexually explicit images. Anchorage Museum: Movies for Your Mind. Tickets $4 for members, $6 general admission & $5 for seniors. Movie site: http://www.blackwhitegray.com/