Dustin Lance Black, like so many gay men, always had a very strong connection with his mom
But things were complicated. He grew up in a Mormon home, struggling to come to terms with his sexuality. One, because he thought that meant he was going to hell. And, two, because didn’t want to disappoint his beloved mother, Roseanne, who raised Black and his two brothers while she was living with polio, paralyzed from the chest down.
Their complex relationship is at the heart of the new HBO documentary, Mama’s Boy, based on Black’s revealing 2019 autobiography, Mama’s Boy: A Story From Our Americas.
Long before his high-profile marriage to Olympic diver Tom Daley, before his historic Oscar win for Milk, or his work on other celebrated projects like Under The Banner Of Heaven and When We Rise, Black was another closeted kid in suburbia.
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Mama’s Boy revisits that time in the writer-director’s young life, when he lived in fear of his secret getting out and losing his mother. But, eventually, the truth had to come out, and the doc details how Black and his mom found common ground, teaching him a crucial lesson building bridges that would inspire his career in filmmaking and activism.
Told through archival footage and talking head interviews with Black, as well as many of his loved ones and collaborators (don’t worry: Tom Daley’s in there, too), the doc tells a powerful story about storytelling, resilience, and why it’s important to create the time and space to share with others.
Directed by Laurent Bouzereau (Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind), Mama’s Boy is set to make its world premiere as the opening night presentation of New York City’s Newfest on October 13. The film is then set to debut October 18 on HBO (and simultaneously on HBO Max).
You can watch the trailer below:
redzebra1
Why is he treated as some kind of a hero? Didn’t he bump off a landmark activist in a speech a few years ago, omitting her, pretending he was first to do something? He’s a cloutchaser. He should be denounced for ‘elbowing his way’ into the LGBTIQ activist spotlight as if he should get hero treatment he doesn’t deserve. It’s one ‘gaffe’ after another. What next? He claims in a speech he was at the Stonewall Riot BEFORE HE WAS BORN? I wouldn’t be surprised. No offense to the editors, but you need to make more effort in scrutiny. If you want to be polite use phrases like ’embellishments’ or ‘exaggerations’, if the l-word is too much for you
inbama
Sounds like you have him confused with Marsha P. Johnson who is famous for having activists insist she threw the first brick at the Stonewall riots even though she didn’t arrive until it was underway.
DFW
Do your research.
LumpyPillows
red, you are everything wrong with people typing nonsense on the Internet. None of you typed is correct. Why do people like you always find fault with everything?
Why is he a hero? He is known for writing the film Milk, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2009. And many more notable things.
What have you done? Loser.
dbmcvey
Where are you getting your information?
Chrisk
Looks interesting. Might be worth a watch.
RKP
wow truly groundbreaking:
struggling to come to terms with his sexuality….. closeted kid in suburbia…..he lived in fear of his secret getting out …
so pretty much how every gay boy from a certain period in time felt growing up
is he going to reveal that he also felt alone? that he thought nobody else was like him? he felt ashamed?
He’s a trailblazer
how wonderful to think your so fascinating you deem it worthy of a documentary rather than just understand its a common theme that connects a majority of gay people
still_onthemark
Reminds me of the classic cartoon where an egg is hatching: “Not another coming out story!”
flim
The reason it’s called mama’s boy is that it’s centered around his mom/ who was paralysed from Polio and yet still managed to live an incredible life/ which really comes through in the book, I feel like you are just coming into this with a lot of judgement on his but ultimately it’s more about his family/ about the experience of growing up gay and mormon as well as about his and his moms relationship
Bigboaster
You’re so jaded, bitter and negative. Please gain some damn self awareness.
DFW
If you disliked the trailer, why spend your valuable time and thousands of pixels bitching about it?
LumpyPillows
Yeah, there is always a jealous krunt in the pile. Get a life.
oaksong
Read the book! I did.
flim
Really looking forward to watching this the book was great/ his mother seemed like an incredible woman also the kinds of conversations he had in the book with the Mormons and his southern family are very necessary I hope that continues into the documentary
ScottOnEarth
Punctuation is your friend.
stanhope
What I will say, having seen ‘that’ video, he’s a good bottom.
galileo
Mary! A bottom you say, and a good one?! It’s the end of days I tell you, gay bottoms, what ever next. SMH
Salacious1
Read the book. Not your average story by far. Includes fighting to repeal the California proposition that overturned gay marriage, then going to the Supreme Court to get marriage equality nationwide. And facing down the Mormon Church who secretly funded the California repeal and the Supreme Court case too.
It’s more about his courageous & remarkable Mother than a biography of himself, and he’s plenty hard on his own failings and struggles.
He gave up earning any money in Hollywood after the Oscar for five years fighting for LGBTQ+ rights, and is gearing up for the coming Supreme Court challenge, who have already vowed to overturn gay marriage.
He and Tom Daley aren’t just a celebrity power couple, they are the living example of a solid, normal and loving family (they have a five year old boy).
Karlis
I loved the book. It really was a boy’s love story to his mama. Tom Daley only appears at the very end of the book and more or less in passing. I’m not sure I want to see a movie that I’m very sure would make me ugly-cry, but the book was wonderful.
Lukas Viak
Did they show the scene where he flipped, assaulted a woman in a club, then lied about having a serious head injury? Ol Dusty, he do tell some stories