In 1982, freelance reporter Randy Shilts completed his first book: a biography of Milk, titled "The Mayor of Castro Street". Shilts wrote the book while unable to find a steady job as an openly gay reporter. "The Times of Harvey Milk", a documentary film based on the book's material, won the 1984 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. Director Rob Epstein spoke later about why he chose the subject of Milk's life: "At the time, for those of us who lived in San Francisco, it felt like it was life changing, that all the eyes of the world were upon us, but in fact most of the world outside of San Francisco had no idea. It was just a really brief, provincial, localized current events story that the mayor and a city council member in San Francisco were killed. It didn't have much reverberation."