575 Castro St.
Very Short Films (under 10 minutes!)
•
7m 6s
Directed by Jenni Olson • Documentary • With Harvey Milk • 2008 • 7 minutes
575 Castro St. reveals the play of light and shadow upon the walls of the Castro Camera Store set for Gus Van Sant's Oscar-winning feature film Milk. These mundane shots are almost bereft of movement and sound. So quiet, so still. All the better to showcase the range of emotions evoked by Harvey Milk's words on the soundtrack. The audio track is an edited down version of the 13-minute audio cassette that Harvey Milk recorded in his camera shop on the evening of Friday, November 18, 1977 (a few weeks after his election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors which made him one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States). Labeled simply: "In-Case" the tape was to be played, "in the event of my death by assassination."
The sensibility of 575 Castro St. hearkens back to the style of the dozens of Super 8 gay short films of the 1970s that passed through Harvey Milk's hands to be processed and developed at the Castro Camera Store. The film was commissioned by FilmInFocus.com to be showcased online in conjunction with the theatrical release of Milk.
Up Next in Very Short Films (under 10 minutes!)
-
Anthem
Directed by Marlon Riggs • Documentary • 1991 • 8 minutes
Marlon Riggs' experimental music video politicizes the homoeroticism of African-American men. With images—sensual, sexual, and defiant—and words intended to provoke, Anthem reasserts the self-evident right to life and liberty in an era of...
-
A Game of Three Halves - Episode 1
Directed by Matthew Bate • Animation • 2021 • 4 minutes
Sports journalist, podcaster and week-end player Max Rushden, hilariously ruminates on the frustrastions, disasters and joys of spending his weekends organising and playing amateur Sunday league football. From surviving apocalyptic microcli...
-
Christmas with Chávez
Directed by Jim Finn • Documentary • 2013 • 2 minutes
Weeks before the 2006 midterm elections, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez came to the United Nations and delivered his "smells of sulfur" speech about Bush. After that speech, Bush was officially a lame duck—the Republicans lost the House and...