The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

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The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

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Acclaimed filmmaker Epstein shares the power of film

The SMU Cinema Television Department’s two-day long symposium, Media and Human Rights in America, kicked off with a tribute to Academy Award winning director Rob Epstein yesterday.
 

Epstein joined students and human rights supporters at the Angelika Film Center for a discussion and a showing of clips from six of his moving documentaries, spanning over thirty years of work.
 

The evening concluded with a screening of one of Epstein’s best-known films, “The Times of Harvey Milk.”
 

Epstein began his foray into filmmaking as a 19-year-old intern on the set of “Word Is Out,” Peter Adair’s film about the identity of lesbian and gay Americans, and a major landmark in the gay rights movement of the 1970s.
 

Epstein said he was hooked the first day of filming.
 

“Part of what drove me to seek something new is that I identified as an artist, but I had no reason to identify as an artist because I hadn’t found an art form. On that project I got to grow into being a filmmaker,” said Epstein.
 

Epstein’s first exposure in the industry clearly had a major effect on his work, as most of his documentaries have to do with gay rights.
 

However, Epstein said it was not a conscious decision.  
 

“I choose stories because there’s just something that sparks,” he said at an interview at the Palomar Hotel. “It has to be something I feel invested in. It’s more gut-intuition than anything conscious.”
 

Epstein’s next project was the groundbreaking documentary, “The Times of Harvey Milk,” which follows the political career and tragic assassination of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California.
 

The film won the Academy award for Best Documentary.
 

“[‘Word Is Out’]  was thematically about self-identifying. Society couldn’t identify gay people until we self identified,” said Epstein. “‘The Times of Harvey Milk’ was about the way people responded to that.”
 

Epstein started the documentary while he was living in San Francisco, and Harvey Milk, who was still alive, captured his attention.
 

He says the events of history followed and he just tried to keep up with them.
 

“The rest of the world viewed it as a passing event. For us it was life changing. I wanted anyone who would see it would experience it viscerally, emotionally, like we had,” said Epstein.
 

The documentary greatly inspired another acclaimed film, “Milk,” in which Epstein was a highly valued consultant on set. It’s there that Epstein met the lead role in his new film, “Howl,” James Franco.
 

“Howl,” which debuted this year at the Sundance Film Festival, is Epstein’s first leap into narrative feature films.
 

Epstein describes it as a ‘hybrid,’ as it is a feature film based on documentary texts about Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” and the obscenity trial its publisher was put on.
 

Other clips were shown from Epstein’s films “Celluloid Closet,” “Paragraph 175,” and “Common Threads.”
 

As documentaries, the films rely heavily on the willingness of the subjects to be open and share their stories.
 

Sean Griffin, chair of SMU’s CTV department and moderator for the event, asked Epstein to share his strategies for interacting with his subjects and making them feel comfortable.
 

“Most people have some understanding of the value of telling their story and it’s a question of helping them convey that and feel comfortable,” answered Epstein. “It’s important that they trust your intentions.”
 

One of his many talents is getting people to open up; many audience members were brought to tears by some of the emotional moments in films like “Common Threads,” which follows the first decade of the AIDS epidemic in the US.
 

Although Epstein has never considered himself an activist, he said “the results and responses to the films have been activist in nature. They’ve had a real impact on societies around the world. Over the years I still hear from people, one-on-one.”
 

His documentaries have made, and continue to make an impact on people’s lives. Epstein’s words to students who hope to become filmmakers encouraged them to go for something more than just entertainment value.
 

“Don’t do it for the money, do it for love,” said Epstein, “Because you believe in the power of film and you think that you might have something to say in the media. We wield a lot of power and it’s up to us as [film]makers to decide what we want to do with that power.”
 

As a thank you for participating in the symposium and for the work he has created, Sean Griffin presented Epstein with an engraving of Harvey Milk’s words: “Hope will never be silent.”
 

As long as filmmakers like Epstein continue to exist, these words will be true.
Learn more about Epstein’s work at www.tellingpictures.com.

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