Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman Collection, The

Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman Collection, The

For more than 30 years, Oscar-winning directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman have borne powerful witness to gay life, creativity and activism, documenting lost aspects of LGBTQ+ history and chronicling unfolding events with humor, compassion and fierce urgency.

The Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman Collection includes three of their most essential works in new restorations: Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt (winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1989), Where Are We? Our Trip Through America (1992) and Paragraph 175 (2000).

Common Threads uses the NAMES Project Memorial Quilt to explore the cross-section of identities affected by HIV/AIDS, as well as efforts to combat the stigma, misinformation and political obstruction that deepened the crisis. Where Are We? Our Trip Through America follows Epstein and Friedman as they chronicle an 18-day road trip through the American south. They interview a large variety of people along the way, stopping to ask them questions about their hopes and regrets. Paragraph 175 fills a crucial gap in the historical record by revealing the lasting consequences of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals.