Rob Epstein Home  Directory Rob Epstein
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Rob Epstein
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Title: |
Independent Filmmaker, Telling Pictures |
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Type: |
Advisory Board Member |
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| Long Description | |
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Rob Epstein won his first Oscar for the classic documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk" (narrated by Harvey Fierstein, music by Mark Isham). Rob conceived, directed, co-produced, and co-edited this non-fiction feature, which encapsulates a crucial turning point in gay politics through the story of the first successful election campaign by an openly gay candidate in California; his assassination by a rival on the San Francisco city council; and the violent community outrage provoked by the murderer’s trial. The Times of Harvey Milk won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best Non-Fiction film of 1985, and an American Film Magazine critics’ poll named it one of the best documentaries of the decade. The film was selected by the UCLA Film & Television archive as a restoration project, and was re-released—for the first time in 35mm—in 2000.
Rob began his filmmaking career at age twenty by answering an ad in the paper seeking volunteers for what would become the landmark documentary Word Is Out. Rob became a co-director on that film with other members of the Mariposa Film Group, and has since produced and directed numerous non-fiction works for national television including The AIDS Show: Artists Involved with Death and Survival (co-directed with Peter Adair -1986), and the PBS series We The People with Peter Jennings (1997). His Oscars for Harvey Milk and Common Threads, along with three Peabody Awards, four Emmys, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, have made Rob one of the most acclaimed non-fiction film directors working today. He has taught in the graduate program at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, and is currently Chair of the new graduate film department at California College of the Arts. |
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