10 am: Documentaries

The Laemmle Theatres’ Documentary Days 2000 film series kicks off with “The Man Who Drove Mandela,” a film that blends archival footage and dramatized scenes to tell the story of Cecil Williams, a gay Johannesburg theater director and freedom fighter, who helped Nelson Mandela in the early 1960s. Mandela would disguise himself as Williams’ chauffeur in order to travel across South Africa and organize a paramilitary guerrilla army. The film will play morning shows at the Sunset 5 in Hollywood this weekend and then play morning shows at the Monica 4-Plex in Santa Monica on March 4 and 5. Other films in the series include “Theme: Murder,” “Circus Redickuless,” “Eternal Memory: Voices From the Great Terror,” “Surviving Mankind: Documentary Shorts” and “Now & Then: From Frosh to Seniors.” Each film will play one weekend at the Sunset 5, and then will move to the Monica 4-Plex for the second weekend.

* Documentary Days 2000, Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. (323) 848-3505. Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica. (310) 274-9741. Saturday and Sunday through April 9. Films at the Sunset 5 will screen at 10 a.m. and films at the Monica 4-Plex will screen at 11 a.m. See Special Screenings listings in Weekend and Sunday Calendar each week for full program information. $5.50 to $8.50. https://www.laemmle.com

8 pm: Dance

When the neo-Expressionist Buto-Sha Tenkei company made its U.S. debut in 1996, The Times called the performance “an alternately poetic and disturbing dance-theater experience.” Now this four-member ensemble from Japan returns in the West Coast premiere of “Kanata,” in which choreographer-performer Ebisu Torii creates a metaphor for the bridge between the living and the dead. “Once you imagine yourself in Torii’s place or imagination, he has you in his power and works great magic,” wrote the Japan Times after the work’s Tokyo premiere in November. But, as in 1996, nobody eclipsed Mutsuko Tanaka, the mesmerizing diva from hell dominating Torii’s dark vision.

* “Kanata,” Buto-Sha Tenkei, Japan America Theatre, 244 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles, 8 p.m. $10 (students, seniors) to $20. (213) 680-3700.

8 pm: Comedy

When L.A.-based comedian Margaret Cho took her show “I’m the One That I Want” to New York last summer, audiences feasted on her tales of fear and loathing in Hollywood; sure, other former sitcom stars have turned to alcohol and pills, but few are as funny about it as Cho. Currently touring the country, Cho performs Saturday at the Wiltern Theatre.

* Margaret Cho, Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, 8 p.m. $28.50 and $40.50. (213) 388-1400.

8:15 pm: Pop Music

With his four albums, Ben Harper has built a growing audience that’s fiercely loyal to his expressive, folk-based rock. The bard of the Inland Empire has worked his way up to 6,000-seat arenas like the Universal Amphitheatre, where he shares the bill with an intriguing English entry, Gomez.

* Ben Harper, with Gomez, Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, 8:15 p.m. $26.50. (818) 622-4440

10 am: Art

From detailed cookbooks to a full-scale sugar sculpture, “The Edible Monument: The Art of Food for Festivals” documents the elaborate culinary feats created in European cities and courts from the 16th to 19th centuries. Opening Saturday at the Getty Research Institute, the exhibition will include some 70 prints of “grand edible monuments” as well as cookbooks and serving manuals on the art of making desserts in the form of palaces; festival books; and a sugar sculpture by culinary historian Ivan Day.

* “The Edible Monument: The Art of Food for Festivals,” the Getty Research Institute Exhibition Gallery, the Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Ends May 21. Admission free; parking reservations required, students exempted. (310) 440-7300.

7:30 pm: Pop Music

Tim Hauser, Alan Paul, Janis Siegel and Cheryl Bentyne--collectively known as the Manhattan Transfer--have won armfuls of Grammys during their 20 harmonious years together. They present their special brand of sophisticated doo-wop and jazz vocalese in four-part harmony for this benefit for the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Music Department.

* Manhattan Transfer, Harriet and Charles Luckman Center for the Performing Arts, Cal State Los Angeles, 5151 Campus Drive, 7:30 p.m. $25 to $50. (323) 343-2659.

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FREEBIES: “Ce-Tecpatl: Mexica New Year,” an art show featuring works by Richard Duardo, Gronk, Frank Romero and others, opens at the Eagle Rock Community Center, 2225 Colorado Blvd., with a reception from 2 to 5 p.m. (323) 226-1617.

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Beyond Baroque Film Club presents Charles Burnett’s 1971 drama “Killer of Sheep”; “Looking for Langston,” Isaac Julien’s film about Langston Hughes; and excerpts from Gil Noble’s documentary “Malcolm X.” 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, 1:30 p.m. (310) 822-3006.