8 GAY

PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE December 5, 2008

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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

eveni

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got gay history?

'Milk' screenwriter sees striking parallels to today

by Larry Nichols

Harvey Milk, one of the pivotal figures in the gay equal rights movement, now has his brilliant but too-short life and career depicted on the big screen.

Milk was first openly gay man elected to public office in a major city when he became a San Francisco city supervisor in 1978. The city's gay equal rights ordinance, passed that year, was among his many achieve-

ments.

(Though Milk is often called the first out gay person elected in the United States, that is not true: Kathy Kozachenko won a seat on Ann Arbor's city council in January 1974 and, later that year, Elaine Noble was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Allan Spear became the first openly gay man to win an election in 1976 when voters returned him to his Minnesota Senate seat after he came out two years earlier.)

Less than a year after he was elected, Milk, along with Mayor George Moscone, was assassinated by former city supervisor Dan White.

Milk, hitting Ohio screens on December 12, was written by out screenwriter and executive producer Dustin Lance Black, directed by Gus Van Sant and stars Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn in the title role.

Black, who had wanted to make this movie for a long time, studied Milk's life a great deal before starting to pen the script.

"There were three years of research traveling to San Francisco from Los Angeles, meeting the real-life people and doing those interviews before there was a script," he said. "The research didn't stop then. We started producing the film and as a producer on it, we had to get even more exacting on what things looked like and where things took place. We were researching all through post-production."

Milk represents a huge leap in Black's profile as a screenwriter. Born in 1979, he grew up in a devout Mormon military house-

hold in San Antonio. After relocating to Salinas, Calif., he finished high school and became deeply immersed in theater, apprenticing with stage directors, working on lighting crews and acting. He graduated UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television with honors.

PHIL BRAY

A well-wisher raises a toast to Harvey Milk (Sean Penn).

Black soon began directing documentaries, commercials and music videos. His documentary features led to two years of producing and directing the BBC reality series Faking It.

In 2004, he was drafted for the television series Big Love as a writer and producer, working with the program for three seasons. He also wrote and directed Pedro, profiling the late AIDS activist and reality TV star Pedro Zamora, which premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.

“I prefer to be involved in projects where I have a personal connection to whatever the story is and the characters are," Black said of his film work. "Because then I can write about my experience and get specific enough that I'm telling a story that people

find original and compelling. That would explain Big Love. I grew up Mormon so I was able to help them with those stories. Obviously Milk and Pedro had to do with growing up gay. So it has to some relation to my own biography I suppose."

Once Van Sant signed on to direct Milk, Black saw the project gain momentum and found the two of them saw virtually eye to eye on their vision of the film and the casting.

"I'm also one of the executive producers of the film, so I was there every step of the way," he said. "Ultimately, the decision is Gus's, but I can't think of a single instance where we disagreed. It was very often clear who it should be. We went and met Sean Continued on page 10

Curbside

THIS

THE EX-FILES WIRK

ART

HENEVER I MEET SOMEONE, PARTICULARLY A GUY I'M INTERESTED IN, THE FIRST THING I DO 15 THE "BACKGROUND CHECK." So

WHAT

DO You

I KNOW THAT WHAT THEY DO FOR A LIVING AND ALL THAT IS IMPORTANT, BUT NOT AS IMPORTANT TO ME AS THE OTHER STUFF: CONSIDER

YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE ?

WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DO YOU LIKE

WHAT'S THE LAST BOOK YOU READ

By Robert Kirby I READ SOME WHERE THAT MY GENERA-

TION (AS IT WERE) DEFINES ITSELF THROUGH ITS MEDIA MORE THAN ANY GENERATIONS BEFORE IT. I KNOW I'VE BUILT ENTIRE FRIENDSHIPS AROUND BANDS THAT I LOVE, AND DEVELOPED DEEP BONDS WITH PEOPLE WHO CAN RECITE DIALOGUE WORD FOR WORD FROM FAVORITE MOVIES WITH ME.

"I CAN SEE YOUR "BREASTS, MAMA.

DIRTY PILLOWS EVERYTHEY'RE CALLED ONE WILL."

BREASTS."

ONCE I HAD A CRUSH ON A BOY

I THOUGHT WAS REALLY CUTE, UNTIL I SAW HIS APARTMENT."

No

BOOKSHELVES

AND OVER HERE IS

THE

BATH

ASOM

NO

Books

ANYWHERE

IT'S NOT THAT I WANT A CARBON

COPY OF MYSELF, BUT IS IT SO MUCH TO ASK THAT THE NEXT GUY I MEET KNOWS WHO, SAY, DARIO ARGENTO IS, OR MAYBE OWNS A BOOK BY LYNDA BARRY, OR CAN RECITE A FEW LINES FROM ORDINARY PEOPLE AND WON'T EVER, EVER TRY TO GET ME TO LISTEN TO CELINE DION

I FEAR THAT I WILL AGE INTO A PARTICULARLY HORRID OLD MAN.

You GODDAMNED KIDS WOULDN'T KNOW A GOOD SONG (cough cough. cough) IF IT CAME UP AND BIT YOU ON THE ASS (cough cough). -X wheeeeze st

your place?

yeah

Un huh

WELL

OK,

NO WAY

www.curb-side.com

A PHONE

Book

#401

@2008 R. KIABY-2