A documentary about author-activist
Armistead Maupin will have its world premiere on Saturday at South By
Southwest (SXSW), Austin's annual festival about interactive media,
film and music.
The 72-year-old Maupin is best known
for his gay-inclusive Tales of the City series of novels.
“The Untold Tales of Armistead
Maupin examines the life and work of one of the world's most
beloved storytellers,” the film's description reads, “following
his evolution from a conservative son of the Old South into a gay
rights pioneer whose novels have inspired millions to claim their own
truth. Jennifer Kroot's documentary about the creator of Tales of
the City moves nimbly between playful and poignant and
laugh-out-loud funny. With help from his friends (including Neil
Gaiman, Laura Linney, Olympia Dukakis, Sir Ian McKellen and Amy Tan)
Maupin offers a disarmingly frank look at the journey that took him
from the jungles of Vietnam to the bathhouses of 70's San Francisco
to the front line of the American culture war.”
Maupin, who married Christopher Turner
in 2007, began writing Tales of the City in the mid 70s as a
newspaper serial. They were later reworked into a series of books.
Maupin's fist novel, Tales of the City, was published in 1978.
Eight more followed, ending with The Days of Anna Madrigal in
2014. The first three novels in the series have been adapted into
three television miniseries starring Olympia Dukakis and Laura
Linney.
“Initially, he was writing for a San
Francisco audience. His neighbors, his friends, people he might meet
at a party, or on the street, or at a bar,” out actor Sir Ian
McKellen says in the film. “Then when he publishes a book, America
discovered it, and then we discovered it in Europe. And when
Armistead arrives in London for a book reading, he's a rock star.”
The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin
is directed by Jennifer M. Kroots, who also directed To Be Takei,
which takes a look at the life of openly gay actor-activist George
Takei.