Following the critical and box-office failure ofStonewall, a film with the best of intentions and the most deplorable of outcomes, there’s already a need for a more intimate and experienced filmic representation of the LGBT struggle, and the next one may very well come from both a familiar and not-so-familiar place. As EW reports, ABC, not exactly the most ambitious channel on television, has ordered an eight-part mini-series entitledWhen We Rise, which will document the struggle for LGBT rights in San Francisco, and plan to debut the series sometime in 2016.MilkproducerBruce Cohen, along with Black, Van Sant, andLaurence Mark, are set to executive produce the series.
The series was penned byDustin Lance Black, who is known primarily for his Oscar-winning script forMilk, about the late gay-rights advocate and beloved city official Harvey Milk. That film was directed, sensationally, byGus Van Sant, and now the filmmaker is confirmed to be the director on at least the first two parts ofWhen We Rise. Both men are openly gay and have helmed, and written, some of the most fascinating works about homosexuality over the last few decades. Beyond scriptingMilk, Black also wrote the script for one of the most undervalued films of this decade, that beingClint Eastwood’s surpassingly wise and insightfulJ. Edgar, which quietly suggested that repression of homosexual tendencies was part of what made J. Edgar Hoover, played by a heartbreakingLeonardo DiCaprio, such a brutal, fascistic government official.
Van Sant, of course, has touched on concepts of sexuality, in several different forms, throughout his career in several major masterworks, ranging fromMy Own Private IdahoandDrugstore Cowboyto his marvelous debut,Mala Noche, and the controversial, unforgettableElephant. Despite his more progressive thematic concerns, Van Sant is first and foremost a brilliant creator of images and a poetic formulator of cinematic visuals; even his most negligible projects are worth seeing just to see where he puts the camera and how the film is cut together. Packaging his increasingly honed technical abilities with some of his most personal fascinations, the director might help makeWhen We Riseone of the best narratives that ABC has ever okayed in their history as a network.
