Coming to theatres today, Friday, September 29:
THE UNTOLD TALES OF ARMISTEAD MAUPIN
Director:
Jennifer M Kroot
Co-Director:
Bill Weber
Premiere:
SXSW 2017
Select Festivals:
Cleveland, DOXA, Ashland, Nashville, Montclair, Martha’s Vineyard, Oxford, Provicnetown, Galway, Frameline, Outfest, LGBT fests in Boston, Tel Aviv, San Diego, Vancouver, Hong Kong
About:
On the life and work of the acclaimed author of the TALES OF THE CITY series.
In this enjoyable biographical portrait, Kroot and Weber pen a documentary love letter to Maupin, whose beloved TALES began as a serial in the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle and other papers in the mid 1970s and spawned books and a groundbreaking television adaptation in the 1990s. More than creating indelible characters like Anna Madrigal, Mary Ann Singleton, and Michael Tolliver, the long-running series chronicled San Francisco’s gay community as it moved from liberation through the trauma of the AIDS epidemic and beyond. In addition to detailing the creation and inspiration of the series, the film recounts Maupin’s own coming out process, as he bucked Southern family pressure and a tour of duty in Vietnam to relocate to San Francisco and embrace his sexual and political identity more fully. Although buoyed by the presence of friends and collaborators like TALES adaptation stars Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney, and authors Neil Gaiman and Amy Tan, Kroot and Weber’s enjoyable film shines in putting its spotlight on its affable subject to take the storytelling reins.
what (not) to doc 