Monday, March 10, 2008

1978 Gay Freedom Day

Yesterday, Diana and I participated as extras for the movie, Milk. We joined hundreds of people who were recreating the 1978 Gay Freedom Day.

It was very cool - we arrived at 11:00am, and stayed until 1:30 or so. (They were still filming when we left.) I just found this blog from someone else who was there saying he left after 5 hours, and they were still filming. He took some good photos.

While Diana and I were there, they were filming a scene where Harvey Milk (played by Sean Penn) came out to the front of City Hall to deliver a Speech. This day in June, 1978 was also the first day that the Gay Pride / Rainbow Flag was unveiled for the first time.

It was a gorgeous day yesterday - in the high 60s or low 70s. This was great because we were recreating a sunny, warm day in June, 1978. People who participated were asked to wear clothing from that era. I didn't have time to plan much, so I wore a rather generic white polo shirt with jeans, but many people really got into the spirit of the era. It was a lot of fun.

They filmed the same scene while we were there about 8-10 times - getting different angles, and trying different things each time. We all cheered for Harvey Milk when he came out to speak, and cheered during his speech. It was a bit surreal.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the final product of this film turns out. I hear they are planning to release it in November, in time for the 30th anniversary of Harvey Milk's assassination.

I'm very pleased that I had a chance to participate in this film. It's been so interesting watching the different stages of filming over the past two months, and I love how much they are filming in, and involving our local community.

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