The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin (2017)

January 14, 2018 8:51 PM

A documentary celebrating one of the world's most beloved storytellers, following his evolution from a conservative son of the Old South into a gay rights pioneer whose novels inspired millions to re-claim their lives.

Now streaming on Netflix.

posted by roger ackroyd (4 comments total)

This doc is fairly lightweight, which isn't meant to be a criticism. Talking heads include Laura Linney, Amy Tan, Neil Gaiman, Kate Bornstein and Margaret Cho, but of course the best stories come from Armistead himself. He's had a fascinating life. He recounts his first writing gig as a young man was for Jesse Helms, his tryst with Rock Hudson, and about being in San Francisco in the 1970s when gay life flowered and in the 80s, when it was turned inside out by HIV. A lot of time is spent on the early 1990s miniseries, which was a huge hit for PBS that became an even larger target for conservatives in Congress. Olympia Dukakis remembering the transwoman who inspired her performance as Mrs. Madrigal is very touching, even if she does stumble over some of the words.

Interesting footnote: last summer, Variety reported that Netflix is working on a continuation of the series with Linney and Dukakis. Just imagine: mid-nineties San Francisco. Mary Ann Singleton is fiddling with her Geocities page, Mouse has just opened the Castro's first spin studio, Mrs Madrigal is planning a radical action at Lilith Fair.
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:20 AM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

The last 3 books have Mrs Madrigal going to Burning Man, Mary Ann having a hysterectomy and Mouse dealing with his FL family.
posted by brujita at 5:48 PM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

I liked this a lot!
posted by Clustercuss at 2:08 PM on January 16, 2018

from update from the film's Facebook page: "Netflix accidentally released our film early and withdrew it when the error was spotted. It will be available again later this year. Thank you for your patience! For those of you who got to stream it, consider that a sneak preview."
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:35 AM on January 31, 2018