Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Times of Harvey Milk

A colleague recommended the documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk" (1984) to me recently, and it was a great call.  Yes, it's a wonderful and very loving biography of Milk, but it also offers some wonderful lessons in city politics and civic engagement.  I'm actually using part of the film in my state/local politics class to teach about the consequences of a city choosing district-based or at-large council elections.  As the film explains, San Francisco switched to district elections in 1977, making it possible for the Castro area to elect the first openly gay city official in the nation a year later.

You can view the entire film for free on Hulu or YouTube.

1 comment:

Jerry Pritikin said...

I knew Harvey as a friend, and was involved in San Francisco's early gay rights movement of the 1970's. I would like to recommend a great website that is dedicated to the evolution of the Castro from a lazy S.F.neighborhood into America's Gay Mecca. What makes this site standOUT is that it is not a recreation like the movie"MILK", but actual images and stories by those of us who were there. www.thecastro.net/ and my pages
www.thecastro.net/stree/memoriespage/pritikin/pritikin.html