Gus Van Sant’s film Milk, based on the life of Harvey Milk, premiered tonight at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man elected to political office, but was later assassinated along with San Francisco mayor George Moscone in 1977. The movie stars Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, Josh Brolin, James Franco and Emile Hirsch and was filmed on location here in San Francisco. It is slated for limited release this Thanksgiving and nationwide a few weeks after.

While we are kicking ourselves now for not attending the premiere, but we did get some brief video of Sean Penn as he walked down the red carpet. Apologies in advance for the poor audio.

Here is the amazing trailer for the film.

The film is receiving substantial Oscar buzz, particularly Penn’s performance. Be sure to check it out.