#rob epstein

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

Have you seen The Celluloid Closet (1995)?

Yes

No

Haven’t even heard of this movie

Voting ended onAug 10, 2025

[moratoirenoir]

[gregorygalloway]

The Celluloid Closet was screened at a few international film festivals in late 1995 before it was shown on HBO on 30 January 1996 (it would also be screened at the Sundance Film Festival and released in a few US theaters in March).

Based on Vito Russo's 1981 nonfiction book The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, the documentary took more than 14 years to make (Russo died from complications from HIV in 1990), with fundraising proving to be difficult. Lily Tomlin (who narrates the documentary) launched a direct mail campaign to raise money, as well as headlining benefits. Channel 4 in England and other European television organizations provided important funding, as well as the Paul Robeson Fund, the California Council for the Humanities, and the Chicago Resource Center, but it wasn't until Tomlin and the film's directors, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman met with HBO vice president Sheila Nevins that they were able to secure the necessary finances to begin production.

The documentary received praise when it was first released for providing "a thought-provoking look at the decades of omission and misrepresentation endured by the gay community in mainstream cinema." It would go on to receive the Peabody Award and earn 4 Emmy Award nominations: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Informational Programming for editing, sound recording and director of photography. It was also nominated for Outstanding Informational special.

[celluloidrainbow]

THE CELLULOID CLOSET (1995) dir. Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman This documentary highlights the historical contexts that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders have occupied in cinema history, and shows the evolution of the entertainment industry's role in shaping perceptions of LGBT figures. The issues addressed include secrecy - which initially defined homosexuality - as well as the demonization of the community with the advent of AIDS, and finally the shift toward acceptance and positivity in the modern era. (link in title)

[theoscarsproject]

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989). A collection of profiles of people dead from AIDS who are remembered in the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Riveting documentary on the AIDS crisis. Nuanced, political, and intimate in ways I forget documentaries can be sometimes. You really feel like you know these people, so you feel the devastation of their individual and collective loss. I think I started crying ten minutes in and didn't stop until the end. 9/10.

[schlock-luster-video]

On June 26, 1985, The Times of Harvey Milk was screened at the New England Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

[yourdailyqueer]

Rob Epstein

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

DOB: 6 April 1955  

Ethnicity: White - American

Occupation: Director, producer, screenwriter

[haverwood]

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman USA, 1989 ★★★★ Imagine all that could've been done if conservatives weren't running the US back then..