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Friday, November 21, 2008
 Check out Rob's blog on Huffington Post ! from The Times of Harvey Milk Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The award is for individuals who have made important contributions to the art and future of nonfiction filmmaking. Epstein is the director of "The Times of Harvey Milk," a 1984 documentary that won an Academy Award and inspired Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter of Gus Van Sant's forthcoming "Milk." He also co-directed (with Jeffrey Friedman) the 1995 film "The Celluloid Closet," a documentary about Hollywood's depiction of gay people. Epstein and Friedman's next project is "Howl," a drama about the obscenity trial of poet Allen Ginsberg. The film is listed by the Internet Movie Database as "in production" and scheduled for 2009 release. from SFGate home of the san francisco chronicle Thursday, November 6, 2008
By blending personal memories and expert testimony with archival images from the time, FREE LOVE: Sex in '69 will reveal how the 60s' celebrations of individualism, psychedelic enlightenment and free love shook up every corner of American life, and how 1969 brought the biggest shocks of all. It will also show that these tremors had multiple epicenters -- from the streets of San Francisco to the wild canyons of L.A.'s Hollywood Hills, the plush boudoirs of Chicago's Playboy Mansion, the dark bars and bathhouses of New York's Greenwich Village, the hot tubs of Big Sur's Esalen and even the suburbs of the heartland, where wife swapping seemed to be replacing bridge and charades. FREE LOVE will ask, "How did it happen? How did button down America become a nation of swingers and sexual experimenters? (Or did it?) What social, cultural, political, scientific and historical forces were at work? And what was it like to be at the center of the sexual revolution in 1969?" Its surprising and amusing quest for the answers -- and the stories that will be told along the way -- will make FREE LOVE as sexy and swinging as 1969 it self. But we can't do it alone. We need your help. If you are one of the veterans of the sexual revolution -- if you have stories to tell, or home movies or photos from those times to share, please let us know. You might end up playing a role in our film. Your memories -- memories of love, lust, liberation, and above all, sex, will help Telling Pictures to make FREE LOVE: SEX IN '69 an exciting and unforgettable television event. Friday, September 12, 2008
 Five have the beat for 'Howl' James Franco stars in the Allen Ginsberg biopic By Gregg Goldstein Sept 9, 2008, 12:00 AM ET Mary-Louise Parker (left), Paul Rudd and Jeff Daniels (Getty Images photos) NEW YORK -- David Strathairn, Alan Alda, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker and Paul Rudd are attached to join James Franco as Allen Ginsberg in the beatnik biopic "Howl."
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Telling Pictures documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman will make their narrative writing, producing and directing debut with the 1950s-era tale, focusing on the obscenity trial launched to censor Ginsberg's groundbreaking book-length poem. The pair were approached by the Allen Ginsberg Trust to make a film commemorating the 50th anniversary of "Howl." Among the real-life characters featured in the film are prosecuting attorney Ralph McIntosh (Strathairn), Judge Clayton Horn (Alda), prosecution witness Professor David Kirk (Daniels), radio personality and prosecution witness Gail Potter (Parker) and literary critic and defense witness Luther Nichols (Rudd). Gus Van Sant is executive producing the project. WMA and Cinetic Media are onboard to assemble financing and handle sales. "Fifty years later, Ginsberg's vision is as relevant as the year he wrote it," Friedman said. "It resonates with issues of free speech, government censorship, militaristic empire building, fear-mongering, sexual conformity and the co-opting of religion." Graphic novelist and Ginsberg collaborator Eric Drooker will create an animated reimagining of "Howl" (in segments Epstein describes as "a Beat Fantasia") and Carter Burwell will write the original score. Epstein and Friedman produced and directed "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt," and Epstein directed "The Times of Harvey Milk," both Oscar-winning docus. Van Sant's Milk biopic features Franco and bows in November. Franco is repped by Endeavor and James/Levy Management. Strathairn, Alda and Daniels are repped by ICM. Parker is repped by WMA. Rudd is repped by UTA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Epstein and Friedman are repped by Sloss Eckhouse Brennan Law.
The first is the Rockefeller Foundation, which chose Howl as one of 20 recipients of this year’s Media Arts Fellowship, supporting "filmmakers and media artists whose work represents creative risk-taking—pushing the boundaries of genre, form, technique, medium, and content—as well as social and political relevance." That was followed by a grant from the Sundance Institute Documentary Film program, which chose the project for one of 25 grants (out of more than 300 applicants from 20 countries), in support of “U.S. and international documentary films that explore issues of our time with innovative, compelling storytelling.” Both of these grants represent more than important financial backing—they are a tremendously encouraging vote of confidence in this ambitious project. For information about how to make a tax-deductible contribution, or to become an investor, in this exciting and important new film about freedom of artistic expression, please contact us.  (Here's a sneak preview of some artwork by artist Eric Drooker for the animated sequences that will be an important element of the film.) Monday, June 11, 2007
 Believe it or not, I don't usually walk around with an Oscar in a carrying case, but this was an exceptional situation. The occassion was the late Harvey Milk's 77th birthday with friends gathering at the site of his former camera store in San Francisco. I was asked to join the celebration and I figured if ever an occassion warranted an Oscar site visit, this would be it. So here is Harvey's Oscar, paying a brief visit to what was once upon a time "Castro Camera," Harvey's domain. Rob San Francisco June 2007 Wednesday, January 31, 2007
"What [Allen] Ginsberg forced us to understand in Howl…is that nothing is safe from poetry." - Paul Zweig  Twenty-nine years old, poor and unpublished, Allen Ginsberg sat down at his desk in early August of 1955 to type out his "imaginative sympathies." What, instead, came pouring out of his old, second-hand typewriter was Howl, a poem that would set in motion not only his own career but those of his fellow Beat poets. Part autobiography, part manifesto, part prophecy, part spiritual memoir, Howl was something altogether different in the world of American literature. Ginsberg had found a new voice and its impact would be felt not simply in the world of poetry but in American popular culture. Fifty years later, at a moment when American militarism is at the center of national debate, when issues of public obscenity and freedom of speech are once again making headlines, HOWL, the movie, will celebrate this groundbreaking work that helped pave a path for artistic freedom, social critique and sexual candor. Using the poem as its guide, HOWL will offer a modern cinematic journey through Ginsberg's world and his imaginative universe. Using animation, documentary footage, and a dramatic re-creation of the landmark obscenity trial, this feature-length film will re-imagine a 20th-century milestone for a 21st-century audience.
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What Harvey Milk Tells Us About Proposition 8
