Word is Out, Landmark of LGBT Cinema

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 19 7:00 pm
Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives

Mariposa Film Group: Peter Adair, Nancy Adair, Veronica Selver, Andrew Brown, Robert Epstein, Lucy Massie Phenix (U.S., 1977)

Mariposa Film Group members in person.
Quite possibly as relevant today as it was on its debut over thirty years ago, Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives is widely considered the first feature-length documentary on gay and lesbian identity. The film presents a diverse group of twenty-six gay and lesbian individuals who describe their struggle to live a decent life in America despite prejudice, discriminatory laws, and society’s unwillingness to treat them with respect and equality. Interviewees include such noteworthy individuals as poet Elsa Gidlow, professor and political activist Sally Gearhart, inventor John Burnside, civil rights leader Harry Hay, and avant-garde filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky. Peter Adair conceived the project and shared the producing, directing, editing, and photography efforts with five other filmmakers, dubbed the Mariposa Film Group. Among them were Adair’s sister Nancy Adair, who later wrote a companion book for the film, and Rob Epstein, who would go on to direct the Academy Award–winning The Times of Harvey Milk.

Print courtesy of UCLA Film and Television Archive.

The Pacific Film Archive Theater is located at 2575 Bancroft Way (between Telegraph and Bowditch) in Berkeley. Advance tickets are available by calling (510) 642-5249 or visiting http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/tickets

For more information on these and other programs, visit http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries

Word is Out, Landmark of LGBT Cinema

President Obama to give Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk!

Rob Epstein has been invited by The White House to attend this year's 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom Ceremony. President Obama will present the awards at a ceremony on Wednesday, August 12.

WASHINGTON – President Obama today named 16 recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom. America’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom is awarded to individuals who make an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

Read the full press release from The White House here.

Ted Kennedy Jr. (left), Kiki Kennedy and Rob Epstein, at the White House Presidential Medal of Freedom Awards where Senator Ted Kennedy and Harvey Milk were both honored.

CA Senator Mark Leno (left), Bruce Cohen, Anne Kronenberg, Dustin Lance Black and Rob Epstein

President Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to Harvey Milk, as received by Milk's nephew, Stuart Milk.

President Obama to give Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk!

SF 360 : “Howl” gets animated

Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman needed a mere 14 shooting days this spring to shoot Howl in Manhattan. That singular fact is both remarkable and deceptive, as preproduction and postproduction require substantially more days, weeks and months. Indeed, the Academy Award-winning documentary makers, making their narrative feature debut with this dramatic saga of Allen Ginsberg’s scintillating, scathing poem and the obscenity charges that landed City Lights publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti in a San Francisco courtroom in 1957, are happy to be back in their comfort zone. “I love the editing process,” Epstein declares. “It’s usually my favorite part. This is when you really feel it coming alive—or not, and have to find ways to make it come alive.” Read the full article here.

SF 360 : “Howl” gets animated