Production of the film, "Milk" has begun. Harvey Milk was was the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California, and therefore, according to Time magazine, "the first openly gay man elected to any substantial political office in the history of the planet".
He is considered by some to the be Martin Luther King of the Gay Community.
(from Wikipedia):
In 1972, Milk moved to San Francisco. He settled with his partner Scott Smith and opened a camera store, Castro Camera, in the Castro gay village. He emerged as a community leader, founding the Castro Valley Association of local merchants, and represented the neighborhood businesses in dealing with the city government.
Milk ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unsuccessfully twice, in 1973 and 1975. He emerged as a figurehead for San Francisco's large gay community, and was known as the "Mayor of Castro Street", a title which he himself coined. With each campaign, he garnered a larger number of supporters.
Milk's opponent in the 1975 race was Art Agnos, who would win the assembly seat by 3,600 votes out of 33,000 ballots cast.
After San Francisco switched from at-large to district elections, Milk was elected to the Board of Supervisors on his third attempt in 1977, the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the United States, and only the third openly gay elected official in all of the US, after Kathy Kozachenko and Elaine Noble. Milk represented District 5, which included the Castro.
In his eleven months as a Supervisor, he sponsored a gay rights bill for the City as well as – famously – a pooper-scooper ordinance. He was also instrumental in defeating Proposition 6, The Briggs Initiative, backed by State Senator Briggs, which would have allowed openly gay men and lesbians who were teachers to be fired based on their sexuality. In November 1978, Proposition 6 was soundly voted down by Californians.
Harvey Milk was assassinated, along with then-Mayor, George Moscone on November 27, 1978. They were killed at City Hall by Dan White, a former San Francisco City Supervisor. In a controversial verdict, which led to the coining of the legal slang "the Twinkie defense," White was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the assassinations. The movie is being filmed now, and is set to be released towards the end of the year. Director Gus Van Sant is directing the film, which stars Sean Penn as Milk.
They are doing some of the filming on Castro Street, and have transformed part of the street to the way it looked 30 years ago. Harvey Milk's Camera store was on Castro, between 18th and 19th Street. He lived in an apartment upstairs, and used the back of the store as his campaign headquarters. The same building which he had lived/worked in has recently been transformed, as well as some of the businesses around it.
I took a walk down Castro Street yesterday, and snapped some photos. I didn't realize until I was taking the photos they were actually in production. You can see a scaffolding set up in the middle of the street (where the orange cones are) in one of the photos, filming a scene in front of the camera store. You can also see how some storefronts have been transformed, although the businesses inside are still open for business! Our favorite Thai restaurant, Thai House Express is temporarily sporting the facade of "China Court", which is what it was for years, until only about 3 years ago. You can also see "Aquarius Records" next store to it, which has also been long gone. (Thanks to Andrew for the photo of the Aquarius Records sign being put up.)
Since I took these shots during production, you'll see that all of the cars in them are all period to the late 70s. They even went so far in detail that I noticed them painting all of the sidewalk trash cans beige, over the dark green that they usually are.
I also took a photo of our beloved Castro Theater, which is also getting a face lift. I'm not positive, but I assume that the timing of it's new look is coinciding with the filming of "Milk".
Lastly, I'm including a couple of photos that I took from Harvey Milk Plaza, which is on the corner of Market and Castro, down by the entrance to the MUNI Station. There are a series of photos down here depicting the life of Harvey Milk, showing the impact that he had on our community.
I recently heard about the "Milk March" which will be held late in the evening of February 8th. The movie is looking for volunteers to appear as unpaid extras. They will be recreating the famous Candlelight march through the Castro the night after Milk and Mayor Moscone were assassinated in 1978.
I signed up for this evening, as well as two others (which don't seem to be mentioned on the web site anymore). I think this will be a fascinating opportunity to be a part of something important. For me, it's not about "being an extra in a movie". It's more about having the experience of participating in something that is so historically significant to my neighborhood, and my community.
Let me know if you'll be there on any of the nights - would love to hook up with some friends!
Update
Here's a really good article about the movie production that I just found on the B.A.R.
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