In 1977, Harvey Milk is elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming California’s first openly gay public official. This portrait of Milk showcases his neighborhood activist beginnings, his ascent as a symbol of gay political achievement, to his devastating assassination in 1978.

Made long before Gus Van Sant’s acclaimed biopic, but only 6 years after Milk’s murder, this documentary builds on TV footage and interviews to trace the life of the activist. A historical document bearing witness to the simultaneous liberalization and rampant homophobia of 1970s San Francisco.