Gus Van Sant
From “Mala Noche” and “My Own Private Idaho” to “Milk”: one of the leading figures of New Queer Cinema.
Gus Van Sant was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and grew up in several places because of his father’s work. At the Rhode Island School of Design he switched from painting to film. After years in Los Angeles and New York working in advertising, he financed his first feature himself.
“Mala Noche” (1985), shot in black and white in Portland, tells of a liquor store clerk’s unrequited love for a young Mexican immigrant. It treated homosexuality without judgement and made Van Sant, who had long been openly gay, known on the festival circuit. “Drugstore Cowboy” (1989) and “My Own Private Idaho” (1991), with River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as two young hustlers, followed. Van Sant became one of the leading figures of the New Queer Cinema of the early 1990s.
He also succeeded in mainstream cinema: “Good Will Hunting” (1997) earned him an Oscar nomination for best director. “Elephant” (2003), about a school shooting, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. In 2008 he made “Milk”, about the gay politician Harvey Milk, assassinated in 1978; Sean Penn won the Oscar for best actor and Dustin Lance Black for the screenplay.
Van Sant also directed the television miniseries “When We Rise” about the history of the LGBTQ movement and “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” (2024). He is also a photographer, painter, musician and author of the novel “Pink”.