Paul VanDeCarr visits the sets of Milk, Gus Van Sant's biopic starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, where throngs of unpaid extras have been recreating the protest marches and public gatherings on behalf of gay rights that were a feature of Milk's political career in San Francisco in the 1970s. Half a dozen years after Milk's assassination, Rob Epstein made him a nonfiction movie star with his classic 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. That picture was screened at the Castro Theater for the extras to help "educate and inspire" them and get them in the right frame of mind. Also coaching from the sidelines was Milk's political protege, Cleve Jones (who's played in the movie by Emile Hirsch, who Penn directed in Into the Wild), who "is here tonight too to get the hundreds of extras into character.
Read More...