Rob Epstein

Rob 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. In addition to the Academy Award, 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 recently selected by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Sundance Institute as a restoration project, and was re-released—for the first time in 35mm. It is currently available on Netflix and itunes.

Rob's other feature credits include Word Is Out, Oscar-winner Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, Where Are We?, The Celluloid Closet, Paragraph 175, and the forthcoming Howl starring James Franco as young Allen Ginsberg. He currently co-chair of the Media Arts program at California College of the Arts where he is a professor, and a partner in Telling Pictures www.tellingpictures.com.