It comes as no surprise to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston observers that today the board of trustees unanimously elected Rich Kinder, a life trustee, as its new chairman. Kinder takes up the three-year post as successor to Cornelia Long, who held the position for two full terms or six years.
Co-founder, chairman and CEO of Kinder Morgan, Kinder has long been active with the museum. He has chaired the long range planning committee and has served on the executive and finance committees since becoming a trustee in 1988. He chaired the search committee that recruited director Gary Tinterow in 2011. Kinder and his wife, Nancy, chaired the MFAH Grand Gala Ball in 2001.
While Long is stepping down, she is not stepping out of the museum purview. As a life trustee, she will head the future capital and endowment campaign for the museum’s planned campus redevelopment.
In a prepared statement, Tinterow noted, “All of us recognize the sound guidance that Rich Kinder has provided over a broad range of capacities on the MFAH board, most recently as chair of the long range planning committee.
"We are profoundly grateful to Rich for ensuring a strong transition from the distinguished governance that Cornelia Long has provided in her tenure as chairman.”
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston board of trustees unanimously named Rich Kinder chairman.
Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston board of trustees unanimously named Rich Kinder chairman.
As the rights and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community have expanded over the past 50 or so years, one part of that group, transgender people, has found it more difficult to be considered a normal part of society. Every new instance of putting the story of a transgender person on screen, whether fictional or real, increases their exposure to those who might never have encountered them before.
That makes a documentary like Will & Harper (a title which seems to take inspiration from the groundbreaking TV series Will & Grace) valuable. The fact that the “Will” in the title is comedian/actor Will Ferrell helps, as he and longtime friend, Harper Steele, embark on a road trip across the United States soon after Harper reveals her transition from a man to a woman.
Harper, who met Will while they were both at Saturday Night Live in the late '90s/early 2000s, decided at the relatively older age of 59 that she could no longer pretend to be someone she wasn’t. The idea of the road trip – and of filming it – came about so that the friends could reconnect, learn more about each other given the momentous change, and do a lot of the things that Harper enjoyed doing by herself prior to her transition.
Director Josh Greenbaum and his crew attach a camera to the hood of Harper’s old Jeep Wagoneer to record her and Will's conversations as they traverse many states, starting in New York and heading west. Their connection to SNL means that many of the show’s current and former stars show up in one form or another along the way, including Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, Tim Meadows, Lorne Michaels, Molly Shannon, Kristen Wiig, and Will Forte, among others.
While their love and respect for Harper is obvious, Harper has trepidation over how strangers in middle America will react to her. The presence of Will (and the cameras) gives her perhaps easier acceptance than someone not traveling with a famous person, but there are still more than a few uncomfortable stops, particularly when they get to the South (Texas does not come off well, but surprisingly Oklahoma does).
Those scenes with everyday Americans are interesting (if occasionally a bit contrived), but the heart of the film is the friendship between Will and Harper. Their conversations range from silly to heartfelt, but there is a genuineness to them that can’t be faked. Harper invites Will to ask her any questions he has about her transition, resulting in insightful – and, often, funny – answers. Their friendship was clearly already strong, but it gets palpably stronger during the 17-day journey.
There are a lot of messages one could get from a film like this, but it’s notable for how apolitical it is. Will and Harper have encounters with Eric Holcomb, the Republican governor of Indiana, as well as a few people wearing MAGA hats, but their positions on transgender people goes unremarked upon. The friends gently correct people who mis-gender Harper, but they never express any animosity towards them. It’s a movie about exploration, with education as a side benefit.
While it might be too strong to say that Will & Harper is a world-changing film, it adds another layer to the story of transgender people as a whole. It also shows the unconditional love between two friends, a lesson that is heartening in divided times.
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Will & Harper is now playing in select theaters; it will debut on Netflix on September 27.
