Thursday 28 February 2013
Rob Epstein | USA, 1984 | 90 minutes | Cert. 15
Not to be confused with the better-known but rather less interesting feature film about the same man (Milk, 2008), Rob Epstein’s The Times of Harvey Milk came out in 1984, just six years after the assassination of its subject.
Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office when he became a Supervisor at San Francisco’s City Hall in 1977. During his brief stint as ‘the Mayor of Castro Street’, Milk revolutionized local politics in America, not only pushing for full gay rights with unabashed candour, but also re-envisioning the democratic process at a community level.
His murder in November 1978, at the hands of former City Hall colleague Dan White, put paid to Milk’s dream of an emancipated San Francisco. It also revealed just how little gay life was deemed to be worth (White was imprisoned for just five years), and sparked the ‘White Night’ riots of May 1979, a key moment of uprising in the name of justice. This remarkable documentary tells the story of Milk’s life, death and political legacy.