"Brokeback Mountain" director Ang Lee set for biopic of gay Woodstock organizer

Ang Lee, the Academy Award-winning director of the landmark film Brokeback Mountain, is set to boost gay visibility yet again with the biopic Taking Woodstock. It's based on the memoir by Elliot Tiber, who was instrumental in bringing the famed music festival to a farm in upstate New York. From Tiber's website:

In the summer of 1969, Elliot Tiber's life changed in a way he never could have foreseen. Greenwich Village had become the mecca for gays in America. There, Elliot had socialized with the likes of Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Andy Warhol, and a talented young photographer named Robert Mapplethorpe, and yet had managed to keep his gay life a secret from his family. Then on Friday, June 27, Elliot walked into the Stonewall Inn and witnessed the riot that would galvanize the gay movement in the United States. And on July 17, when Elliot read that the Woodstock Concert promoters had lost their license to stage the show in Wallkill, he called to offer his help in finding a new venue. In the days that followed, Elliot found himself swept up in a vortex that would change his life forever.

Should be a fascinating movie, and with Ang at the helm, will definitely be visually splendid (this is, after all, the man who made Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and be gay positive (in addition to Brokeback, he also made the 1993 gay comedy The Wedding Banquet).

With this film, and the upcoming Milk , it's heartening to see great filmmakers looking into our past, and telling the truth about our history.