Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990 TAG: 9004060069
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Epstein is co-writer and co-director of "Common Threads: Stories from the AIDS Quilt," this year's winner of the Academy Award for best documentary.
He also directed "The Times of Harvey Milk," the 1984 movie about the murder of the first openly homosexual person to be elected to public office in this country, which won in the same category.
Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, the other co-writer and director of "Common Threads," will be in Roanoke Monday and Tuesday for the screening of both movies.
On Monday, "Common Threads" will be shown at the Grandin Theatre at 8:30 p.m. On Tuesday, "The Times of Harvey Milk" will be screened at Babcock Auditorium on the Hollins College campus at 7:30 p.m. Discussions about the movies are scheduled for both days.
"Common Threads" looks at five people with different backgrounds who died from acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The movie takes its title both from the diversity of people who contract the fatal disease and from the huge quilt that was sponsored by San Francisco's Names Project, an organization devoted to raising public awarenes of the disease.
The quilt panels are provided by those who have had loved ones die from AIDS. Each panel represents some aspects of the AIDS victim's life. Today, the quilt covers from 14 to 16 acres, said Gert McMullin, the Names Project's workshop director.
Those who have seen "Common Threads" say there isn't a dry eye in the house when the lights go up.
Friedman and Epstein first thought about making the documentary in 1987.
"Rob and I were in D.C. and saw the quilt unfolded for the first time," said Friedman by phone from Atlanta where he and Epstein received broadcasting's Peabody Award this week. "There were no preconceptions. Nobody had seen it before and it was overwhelming. It was such a striking visual image for a film."
Epstein and Friedman, who have their own production company, returned to San Francisco with a commitment in mind to do the film but no clear focus of how it would come together.
They and Bill Couturie, the third producer on the movie, learned that Home Box Office was interested in developing a movie about AIDS. The three took the idea of the quilt to HBO and received the go-ahead. HBO financed both the shooting and the research for the movie and broadcast it last October. Friedman expects the momentum from the Oscar to bring the movie back on HBO.
To find the subjects for the movie, Friedman and Epstein began reading the letters that accompanied the quilt panels. At that time there were 3,000 panels; today there are 12,000, according to Friedman. Out of the thousands of letters, the filmmakers finally picked 70 and interviewed the letter writers on videotape. Then they chose five for the finished film.
"We wanted people who had a sense of humor so it wouldn't be so overwhelmingly glum," Friedman said.
The filmmakers didn't want to gloss over the fact that the disease predominantly affects gay men and intravenous drug users, but they wanted to show that others contract the disease.
"We were already affected emotionally," Epstein said. "Living in San Francisco, you can't help being affected.
"But we didn't know any hemophiliacs or children. In some ways, it was an odyssey and a real eye-opener on how AIDS affects other communities."
Because of the tremendously sad nature of the subject, Epstein and Friedman had to distance themselves at times.
"You have to guard yourself in some ways," Epstein said, "because you are affected. Sometimes you have to work on intuition and gut feeling."
He and Friedman have seen the movie with about 20 audiences and the effect has been universal.
"American audiences will sob openly. But in Berlin there was a lot of coughing. The Germans find it hard to express emotions. The responses are the same but are manifested in different ways."
Friedman said that the filmmakers don't usually travel to communities that are showing "Common Threads." But he and Epstein met Hollins College instructor Carl Plantinga and other members of the Blue Ridge Film Society during last fall's Virginia Festival of American Film in Charlottesville.
The society made a favorable impression and the filmmakers decided to come to Roanoke. The two-day event is sponsored by Hollins College, the Blue Ridge Film Society, Carillion Health Systems, the Roanoke AIDS project and the Grandin Theatre.
The sponsors, as well as the filmmakers, say they hope "Common Threads" will help more people understand the enormity of the disease.
"We received a lot of letters after the HBO broadcast," Friedman said.
"The most moving to me were the ones from people who said it was the first time they had been exposed to the issue. That was a real validation."
Tickets for the showing of "Common Threads" Monday at the Grandin are $6 for non-members of the film society in advance and $7 at the door. Advance tickets are available at Books, Strings and Things.
On Tuesday at 2:40 p.m. the filmmakers will discuss the movie at Babcock Auditorium on the Hollins campus. They will also be on hand at that evening's screening of "The Times of Harvey Milk." The Hollins events are free and open to the public.
by CNB