Dustin Lance Black

Dustin Lance Black
Dustin Lance Black at the 81st Academy Awards.
Born	June 10, 1974 (1974-06-10) (age 37) Sacramento, California
Occupation	Screenwriter, film director, film producer
Nationality	American
Alma mater	UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television '96
Notable work(s)	Big Love (2006 – present) Milk (2008)
Notable award(s)	Academy Awards Best Original Screenplay 2008 Milk

Dustin Lance Black (born June 10, 1974) is an American screenwriter, director, film and television producer, and LGBT rights activist. He has won two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the television series Big Love and an Academy Award for the 2008 film Milk.

Early life

Black was born in Sacramento, California^[1] and grew up in a Mormon household,^[2] in San Antonio, Texas and later moved to Salinas, California when his mother remarried.^[3][4] His father had been the Mormon missionary who had baptized Black's mother earlier.^[3][5]

Growing up surrounded by Mormon culture and military bases, Black worried about his sexuality. He told himself, "I'm going to hell. And if I ever admit it, I'll be hurt, and I'll be brought down" when he found himself attracted to a boy in his neighborhood at the age of six or seven.^[3] He says that his "acute awareness" of his sexuality made him dark, shy and at times suicidal, and he came out in his senior year of college.^[3]

While attending North Salinas High School, Black began to work in theater at The Western Stage in Salinas-Monterey, California,^[3] and later worked on productions including Bare at Hollywood's Hudson Main Stage Theater.^[6] Black attended the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Theater, Film, and Television (UCLA) while apprenticing with stage directors, taking acting jobs and working on theater lighting crews.^[7] He graduated with honors from UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television in 1996.

Career

In 2000, he wrote and directed The Journey of Jared Price, a gay romance film, and Something Close to Heaven, a gay coming-of-age short film. In 2001, he directed and was a subject in the documentary On the Bus about a Nevada road trip and adventure at Burning Man taken by six gay men.^[2] Raised as Mormon, he was hired as the only such writer on the HBO drama series Big Love about a polygamistic family. He has written for all seasons, serving on season one as a staff writer, executive story editor in season two, and was promoted again, to co-producer, for season three.^[5][7][8]

Black giving a speech at a rally.

Black had first visited San Francisco in the early 1990s, while AIDS was devastating the city's gay community. Black said that, "Hearing about Harvey was about the only hopeful story there was at the time."^[9] He had first viewed Rob Epstein's documentary The Times of Harvey Milk when he was in college, and thought, "I just want to do something with this, why hasn't someone done something with this?"^[3] Researching Milk's life for three years,^[7] Black met with Milk's former aides Cleve Jones and Anne Kronenberg, as well as former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos,^[9] and began to write a feature film screenplay encompassing the events of Milk's life.^[3] The screenplay was written on spec,^[10] but Black showed the script to Jones, who passed it on to his friend Gus Van Sant, who signed on to direct the feature.^[9] Black is an old friend of Milk producer Dan Jinks, who signed on to the biopic after he called Black to congratulate him and discovered that the project did not have a confirmed producer.^[11]

Black's film Pedro, profiling the life of AIDS activist and reality television personality Pedro Zamora, premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Coming up, Paris Barclay is slated to direct his screenplay A Life Like Mine and Gus Van Sant is set to direct his film adaptation of Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Black is set to direct his own script What's Wrong with Virginia, to star Jennifer Connelly.

On February 22, 2009, Black won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Milk at the 81st Academy Awards. He wore a White Knot to the ceremony as a symbol of solidarity with the marriage equality movement.^[12] In his acceptance speech at the Oscar ceremony, he said:

“

... When I was thirteen years old my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California and I heard the story of Harvey Milk and it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life, it gave me the hope to one day I could live my life openly as who I am, and that maybe even I could fall in love and one day get married...' "I want to thank my mom, who has always loved me for who I am even when there was pressure not to...' "But most of all, if Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he would want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, or by the government, or by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon I promise you, you will have equal rights federally across this great nation of ours.' "Thank you, and thank you God for giving us Harvey Milk."[4][13]

”

Black marched in the National Equality March and delivered a speech in front of the Congress Building to an estimated crowd of 200,000 LGBT rights activists on October 11, 2009.^[14]

In 2010, Black narrated 8: The Mormon Proposition, a documentary about the involvement of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California's Proposition 8. Black accepted the award for best documentary for 8:The Mormon Proposition at the GLAAD Media awards in San Francisco and spoke out on discrimination in the Mormon church and meeting with the church to make it more LGBT-inclusive.^[4][15]

Black wrote the screenplay for J. Edgar, a biographical drama released November 11, 2011, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.^[16]

Personal life

Black at the 2009 NYC LGBT Pride Rally in Bryant Park

Black told the Daily Bruin that "You hear people say, 'This is my reason for being here. This is my compass.' For me, that's 'Milk.' I wanted to maybe inspire the younger generation to start becoming activists in a grassroots way. There's a lot of stuff that still needs changing — not just gay rights."^[17] Black was the top entry on a list of openly gay influential people in The Advocate's "Forty under 40" issue of June/July 2009.^[18] He was featured on the cover of the magazine. He was one of the Official Grand Marshals in the 2009 NYC LGBT Pride March, produced by Heritage of Pride joining Anne Kronenberg and Cleve Jones.^[19]

In June 2009, photographs of Black engaging in unprotected sex were published by Internet gossip columnist Perez Hilton.^[20] Black released a statement saying: "It is unfortunate that individuals and other outside parties are trying to profit from material which is clearly private." His statement also emphasized the importance of responsible sexual practices.^[21] On 23 July 2009, Black filed a lawsuit against photo agency Starzlife, alleging the organization illegally obtained the pictures and distributed them without his permission. He is claiming invasion of privacy and copyright infringement and asking for $3 million in damages, as well as any profit the company made from the photos.^[22][23]

Awards

• Academy Awards, Best Original Screenplay, 2009, Milk
• Writers Guild of America, Best Original Screenplay, 2009, Milk
• Writers Guild of America, Paul Selwin Civil Rights Award, 2009, "to the member whose script best embodies the spirit of constitutional and civil rights and liberties"
• American Film Institute (AFI) Awards 2008, Milk
• Film Independent's Spirit Awards, best first screenplay, 2009, Milk
• UCLA's Distinguished Achievement in Screenwriting award, "UCLA Festival 2009: New Creative Work," School of Theater, Film and Television, June 10, 2009, Freud Playhouse^[24]
• "Distinguished Service to the LGBT Community by a UCLA Alumnus" Award, 2009 UCLA LGBT Graduation Ceremony, June 13, 2009^[25]

References

1. ^ http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=4807
2. ^ ^{a b} Kim, Chuck (2002-06-25). "Sex, guys, and videotape: "reality" filmmaker Dustin Lance Black talks about turning the camera on himself—and on five young gay men out for fun—in On the Bus". The Advocate. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Lamble, David (2008-02-21). "How he got Milk". Bay Area Reporter. http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=film&article=462. Retrieved 2008-07-24. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} "Cast & Crew: Dustin Lance Black". Focus Features. http://www.filminfocus.com/film/milk/castncrew?member=dustin_lance_black. Retrieved 2008-11-15. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Frei, Darren (2006-06-06). "Polygamy, gays, and TV". The Advocate (964): 4. 
6. ^ Martinez, Julio (2000-10-25). "Theater Review: Bare". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117788465.html?categoryid=33&cs=1. Retrieved 2008-07-25. 
7. ^ ^{a b c} Nichols, Larry (2008-10-02). "Milk-ing the Silver Screen". Metro Weekly. http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=3815. Retrieved 2008-11-15. 
8. ^ Ferber, Lawrence. "Love To Love You, Chloe". Genre. http://www.genremagazine.com/2006/10-1/magazine/content/chloe.cfm. Retrieved 2008-07-25. ^{[dead link]}
9. ^ ^{a b c} Winn, Steven (2008-01-30). "Picturing Harvey Milk: Filming of movie evokes memories, emotions in the Castro". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfchroniclemarketplace.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/01/30/MNUBULUI1.DTL&type=printable. Retrieved 2008-07-25. 
10. ^ Goldstein, Patrick (2008-06-11). "A passion project gets beaten to the punch". Los Angeles Times. http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2008/06/11/a_passion_project_gets_beaten_to_the_punch/?page=2. Retrieved 2008-07-25. 
11. ^ Garrett, Diane (2007-11-18). "Van Sant's 'Milk' pours first". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117976229.html?categoryid=10&cs=1. Retrieved 2008-07-25. 
12. ^ http://www.deadline.com/2009/02/white-knot-oscars-and-spirit-awards-lists/
13. ^ Lance Black acceptance speech
14. ^ "Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black Speaks At Gay Rights Rally In Washington, DC". 2009-10-11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o43Iu0JZgTU. Retrieved 2009-10-13. 
15. ^ Lance Black speech
16. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1616195/
17. ^ Michelle Castillo, "Alum writers at the Oscars", UCLA Daily Bruin, Thursday, February 19, 2009
18. ^ http://www.advocate.com/issue_story_ektid81028.asp Forty Under 40: Dustin Lance Black
19. ^ NYC LGBT Gay Pride - March
20. ^ "Oscar Winner Dustin Lance Black eXXXposed!"
21. ^ "Dustin Lance Black Responds". The Advocate. June 12, 2009. http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid90060.asp. Retrieved 2009-06-13. 
22. ^ "Oscar Winner Dustin Lance Black Sues Tabloid Website Starzlife For Copyright Infringement and Invasion of Privacy". LA IP Trademark Attorney Blog. August 3, 2009. http://www.iptrademarkattorney.com/2009/08/copyright-dustin-lance-black-starzlife-right-privacy-publicity-lawsuit.html. Retrieved 2009-08-03. 
23. ^ "Dustin Lance Black v. Starzlife, Inc". United States California District Court. July 23, 2009. http://www.iptrademarkattorney.com/Black%20-Copyright-privacy-Publicity.pdf. Retrieved 2009-07-23. 
24. ^ By Teri Bond, Oscar-winning 'Milk' screenwriter to be honored at UCLA film festival event, UCLA Newsroom, June 4, 2009
25. ^ UCLA LGBT Graduation Ceremony video, June 13, 2009

External links

• Dustin Lance Black at the Internet Movie Database

• Official Website for Dustin Lance Black

Persondata
Name	Black, Dustin Lance
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 10, 1974
Place of birth	San Antonio, Texas
Date of death
Place of death