Talk:Castro Camera

Resident ghost
An editor removed the sentence about the Milk film crew's encounter with the shop's resident ghost as "fringe" and non-noteworthy. As for being "fringe", it is a simple fact that the film crew and shop owner described seeing a ghost. That is sourced to major publications and it became part of the lore and possibly the public relations branding of the film. It would be fringe to say there actually is a ghost. However, it is not fringe to describe that some people thought there was a ghost. That is not a controversial claim, and in fact there is no opinion to the contrary, i.e. no sources that have said that the film crew did not describe seeing a ghost. As for notability it is mentioned in a quite number of publications. (google search composed to omit the most often repeated news story) It's not just a random camera grip or passerby seeing a ghost - according to these news stories the shop owner, and more or less entire cast and crew from Sean Penn to Gus Van Sant firmly believe they saw a ghost. At least they say that's what happened. Sometimes people tell ghost stories for PR reasons and, as a result, many ghost stories are just concoctions of establishment owners to create mystique about their store. The Wikipedia material is careful only to state that they "described" seeing a ghost, not what they believe or whether the ghost exists. However, taking a rationalist approach to things, belief in ghosts is a universal cultural myth, and it tells us how people conceive of deceased people. That people want to believe that Milk's ghost is alive is an indication that he holds a powerful place in their imagination. I think that's how the people involved, and the news stories, portrayed it. The Times article puts that succinctly, if cheekily, in the subheading of its article: "A new film may have brought Harvey Milk back to life, but his spirit has always ruled the Castro cinema." Wikidemon (talk) 20:51, 21 February 2009 (UTC)