Mama's Boy, a documentary about screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, debuts on HBO October 18. Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, the film explores Black's childhood, gay identity and relationship with his mother, who overcame childhood polio, abusive marriages and "Mormon dogma," according to HBO, to become her son's "emotional rock and, ultimately, the inspiration for his activism."
Black's films include Milk and his TV projects include ABC miniseries When We Rise, HBO drama Big Love and FX drama Under the Banner of Heaven. Black picked up an Academy Award in 2009 for Milk.
"With a wealth of personal photographs and candid memories from Black's family, colleagues and friends, Mama's Boy embraces the personal to tell a universally hopeful tale of resilience and reconciliation through the power of love and shared stories," said HBO.
Black was raised in a conservative Mormon home in the South. He came out to his mother at the age of 21. The film is adapted from Black's 2019 memoir Mama's Boy: A Story from our Americas.
A New York Times review said, "The film takes a somewhat myopic approach to Black's reach-across-the-aisle activism philosophy, focusing primarily on his work toward marriage equality. It doesn't consider how political polarization can make the strategy of sharing space with others, as his mother did, difficult to execute when many places go out of their way to bar those different from them from even entering in the first place."
Amblin Television and Playtone produced Mama's Boy, in association with Nedland Media. Producers are Mickey Liddell, Pete Shilaimon, Steven Shareshian, Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, and executive producers are Gary Goetzman, Michael Glassman, Beau Ward, Mehrdod Heydari, Laurent Bouzereau and Markus Keith. ■
