The NW Film Center is proud to announce that Gus Van Sant will be the honorary chair for this year’s Gala, which will take place on Saturday May 12th. For those of you who don’t know as much as you should about Van Sant, here’s a quick briefing:
He began studying painting at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970, but changed his major to cinema when he became aware of avant-garde directors like Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, and Andy Warhol. He went to Los Angeles in 1976, and was a production assistant to writer/director Ken Shapiro. It was in L.A. that he took an interest in Hollywood Boulevard’s marginalized population, which has since become one of his cinematic themes. His first feature, Mala Noche (1985), dealt with existence on society’s fringe.
