(Screenshot via YouTube)

“When We Rise,” an eight episode mini-series written by Dustin Lance Black and executive produced by Gus Van Sant, has been cast.

The show will follow the personal and political lives of prominent LGBT activists beginning with the Stonewall Riots in 1969. It’s the second time Black and Van Sant will collaborate together after 2008’s “Milk.”

According to Variety, the ABC miniseries will star Guy Pearce as LGBT activist Cleve Jones, fellow activist to Harvey Milk, founder of Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and leader of the 2009 National March for Equality. Mary-Louise Parker, former star of “Weeds,” is set to play women’s rights leader Roma Guy, co-founder of the Women’s Building in San Francisco. Rachel Griffiths will play social justice activist Diane, Guy’s wife, who also co-founded the Women’s Building and was an HIV/AIDS nurse at the San Francisco General Hospital.

Other roles cast are Austin McKenzie as a young Jones, Emily Skeggs as a young Guy, Fiona Dourif as a young Diane and Jonathan Majors as a young Ken Jones.

Black released a statement saying how pleased he is with the casting.

“It’s been the honor of my life to research and craft these stories of family, diversity and equality over the past three years,” Black said in a statement. “To have collaborators of this caliber sign on to help bring these stories to life is a tremendous vote of confidence, and I hope a testament to the relevancy and necessity of our continued march toward justice for all.”