The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin, documentary, dir. Jennifer Kroot, editor/co-director Bill Weber, 2017 USA, 90 min.,👏
Opening Night Film, Thursday, June 15, 7:00 p.m., Castro Theatre Bay Area Premiere Second screening added: Saturday, June 24, 9:15 p.m., Victoria Theatre  |
| Armistead Maupin writing an installment of Tales of the City on his faithful IBM Selectric |
If you’re reading this blog, you probably already know that Armistead Maupin is the author of the beloved Tales of the City series. You may even know that Tales started as a daily column in the San Francisco Chronicle before moving to books and mini-series. But did you know that Armistead Maupin worked for Jesse Helms before moving west to San Francisco? Yes, the same Jesse Helms who later used the first Tales of the City mini-series as a cudgel against PBS, threatening funding for Big Bird and Mister Rogers unless PBS scrapped plans for the sequel. And of course Maupin had an affair with none other than Hollywood star ____ ______ (Rock Hudson).
Untold Tales gives us a peek into the man behind Mrs. Madrigal, Mouse, and Mary Ann Singleton — how he got to San Francisco, how he landed the gig at the Chronicle and later the book and TV deals, and some of the occasionally controversial, often juicy details of his life along the way. It's a well-told documentary from the same folks who brought us To Be Takei three years ago, with interviews with Sir Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, and Olympia Dukakis, among others. Definitely worth seeing, although if you’re a serious festival junkie, you wouldn’t miss opening night unless it was an encore screening of Frisk. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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