Jeffrey Friedman

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt

Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

Dustin Hoffman, Vito Russo

On the eve of 1987's Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, surviving families and friends of people who have died of AIDS prepare panels to be added to a large-scale memorial quilt project. Drawing from the sea of names memorialized, director Robert Epstein focuses on the lives of six people. Alongside the intimate profiles offered, through news footage and interviews, Epstein puts the AIDS crisis in the larger context of social and government response to the disease.

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice

Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton

With one of the most memorably stunning voices that has ever hit the airwaves, Linda Ronstadt burst onto the 1960s folk rock music scene in her early twenties.

The Celluloid Closet

Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

Лили Томлин, Tony Curtis

This documentary highlights the historical contexts that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals 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 homosexual community with the advent of AIDS, and finally the shift toward acceptance and positivity in the modern era.

Paragraph 175

Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

Rupert Everett

During the Nazi regime, there was widespread persecution of homosexual men, which started in 1871 with the Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code. Thousands were murdered in concentration camps. This powerful and disturbing documentary, narrated by Rupert Everett, presents for the first time the largely untold testimonies of some of those who survived.

End Game

Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

Filmed and edited in intimate vérité style, this movie follows visionary medical practitioners who are working on the cutting edge of life and death and are dedicated to changing our thinking about both.

And the Oscar Goes To...

Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening

The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.

The Battle of Amfar

Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

Woody Allen, Mathilde Krim

When AIDS struck in the early 1980s, a scientist and a movie star did not have to respond - but they did. Dr. Mathilde Krim and Elizabeth Taylor joined forces to create amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. The fight against HIV has never been the same. The Perfect Host reveals how two powerful and very different women came together, and what their combined efforts achieved. With passion and wit, Taylor wielded celebrity as a weapon against government indifference while Krim's commitment to science ensured support for the most promising research areas. Today, the only man cured of AIDS can thank research championed by Mathilde Krim. Visually dazzling and emotionally compelling, this story offers a surprising perspective on the still ongoing fight against AIDS.

Where Are We? Our Trip Through America

Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

Accomplished documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeff Friedman take a trip across the American South and Southwest, asking people about their hopes and fears.

Howl

Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

James Franco, Jon Hamm

It's San Francisco in 1957, and an American masterpiece is put on trial. Howl, the film, recounts this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the tumultuous life events that led a young Allen Ginsberg to find his true voice as an artist, society's reaction (the obscenity trial), and mind-expanding animation that echoes the startling originality of the poem itself. All three coalesce in a genre-bending hybrid that brilliantly captures a pivotal moment-the birth of a counterculture.

State of Pride

Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

Heklina

Fifty years after the Stonewall uprising, Oscar-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman travel to three diverse communities – Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama – for an unflinching look at LGBTQ Pride, from the perspective of a younger generation for whom it still has personal urgency.

Underground Zero

Eva Ilona Brzeski, Paul Harrill

A collection of shorts made by various directors in response to 9/11.

Lovelace

Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

Amanda Seyfried, Джон Питер Сарсгаард

Story of Linda Lovelace, who is used and abused by the porn industry at the behest of her coercive husband, before taking control of her life.

Stories from the Plague

Jeffrey Schwarz

Leonard Bloom, Joseph Brewer

The story of the AIDS epidemic from its early, ominous beginnings and the wave of death that followed, through the formation of ACT UP and the arrival of life-prolonging medicines. This program is comprised of interview outtakes from the documentary motion picture VITO, about gay activist and film historian Vito Russo.