A gay activist, Wilson wrote the narration for two Oscar-winning documentaries, “The Times of Harvey Milk.”and “Common Threads”.
Stories from the Quilt in 4K
In person: filmmakers Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein, Irwin rapport Chair, Board of Directors, The Foundation for the AIDS Monument and Karl Schmid, Braodcaster & co-founder of Plus Life media.
As a young man he lived in Mayan communities in southern Mexico, learned enough Tzotzil Maya to get by, and wrote and produced a documentary film called "Appeals to Santiago" about an eight-day Mayan religious festival, "Appeals to Santiago"
Common Threads:
Carter on screen writing:
Los Angeles Blade: You’ve also done a good deal of movie writing.
Wilson: Yes, though nothing that ever made it all the way up to the big silver. Dramas with friend Tim Hunter, original comedies with Judith Coburn, an adaptation of John Webster’s Jacobean melodrama “The White Devil” with Tim, and by myself a screenplay for Christopher Isherwood’s excellent first American novel “The World in the Evening.”
Los Angeles Blade: Are there things you learned from film writing that help writing fiction?
Wilson: A good rule for movies is always to know where your main character is. Where did we see her last and when will she show up again? In fiction this is less necessary, but if you keep to it, you won’t wander off and lose time on peripheral stuff you’ve later got to cut. Of course, the big difference between fiction and film is that unless you have a voice-over narrator, in a feature you can’t just say “The next morning Winky woke up with a hangover as big as the Ritz.” You have to indicate all that somehow. Well, you can put up a card, “Six Years Later in Amalfi, Italy” but that’s a little shoddy usually.
