Gus Van Sant
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"Gus Green Van Sant, Jr." is an American film director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician and author. He is a two-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director—for the drama Good Will Hunting (1997) and the biopic Milk (film)/Milk (2008), both of which were also nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture/Best Picture. He won the Palme d'Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival/Cannes Film Festival for his drama Elephant (2003 film)/Elephant (2003), which was inspired by the Columbine High School massacre. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

His early career was devoted to directing television commercials in the Pacific Northwest. In his films, he has dealt with themes concerning homosexuality and other marginalized subcultures. His filmography as writer and director includes the 1993 comedy-drama-romance film Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (film)/adaptation of Tom Robbins' 1976 novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (book)/Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, which features a diverse cast (Keanu Reeves, Roseanne Barr, Uma Thurman and k.d. lang, with cameos by William S. Burroughs and Heather Graham (actress)/Heather Graham, among others); and the indie drama My Own Private Idaho (1991), also starring Reeves as well as River Phoenix.

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[In contrast to Cobain, though, Blake is never seen using drugs (even if it's clearly hinted at).] I thought there were things that were more important, ... I didn't want it to be all about the drugs - they were an easy way of getting into a whole different type of story.

It was instantaneous. We felt it at once. Here was Jamal.

It felt pretty in the moment because ... he's kind of quiet and he looks like that and dresses like that.

You could easily find combative moments in Kurt's life, and there are places in the film where things could have been really dramatic.

To study a long silence.

If you don't have the story and the unfolding of the trajectory of the saga, it's like getting in a car and not having any gas.

When I was a kid, I looked up to River. He might have had something to do with why I became an actor.

I have my ideas of what a good documentary is, but drama is a different animal because you're arranging everything.