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IMDbPro

Rob Epstein(I)

  • Producer
  • Director
  • Writer
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Director Rob Epstein
Gail Potter (Mary-Louise Parker) indicates why the poem "Howl" has no artistic merit in this exclusive clip.
Play clip0:55
Howl: "Artistic Merit"
1 Video
8 Photos
Rob Epstein was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA as Robert P. Epstein. He is a producer and director, known for The Celluloid Closet (1995), Paragraph 175 (2000) and The Times of Harvey Milk (1984).

Rob has produced films that have screened worldwide, in cinemas, on television, home video and digital platforms, at museums, and at leading film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York. Rob has received two Academy Awards®, five Emmy Awards, three Peabodys and both a Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowship.

Rob moved by bus from New York City to San Francisco at age 19. His first job in the city was as an usher at the Castro Theater back when there was still a smoking section. While taking a filmmaking class at San Francisco State University, he became a production assistant on a documentary in early development where he met his mentor, Peter Adair. He quickly rose to co-director, with the other members of the Mariposa Film Group. The film became the landmark documentary Word Is Out, released in theaters in 1978, airing nationally on prime-time public television, and recently restored and re-released by Milestone.

Rob's next project was the Oscar-winning feature documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, which he conceived, directed, co-produced and co-edited. The film touched audiences immediately, becoming an international festival sensation starting at Berlinale, and winning the Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary as well as the New York Film Critics Award for Best Non-Fiction Film of 1985. In 2013, the Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry, and the film is now part of the prestigious Criterion Collection. Harvey Milk was recently named one of "25 most influential documentaries of all time" by the Cinema Eye honors and in 2017 received the Legacy Award.

Since 1987, Rob and his producing partner Jeffrey Friedman have worked under the Telling Pictures banner, traversing the worlds of non-fiction and scripted narrative. Rob won his second Oscar for the documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, made with Jeffrey Friedman. Rob's other films with Jeffrey include the box office hit The Celluloid Closet (Emmy Award for directing), the HBO documentary Paragraph 175 (Sundance Film Festival Jury Award for Directing), Where Are We?, And the Oscar Goes to for Turner Classic Movies and most recently Killing the Colorado, a feature documentary about the drought in the Western U.S. premiering on Discovery Channel in August 2016.

In moving from documentary to dramatic narrative, Rob and Jeffrey collaborated on the narrative feature HOWL, starring James Franco, followed by Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard and Sharon Stone, and released by The Weinstein Company's Radius-TWC. Both films premiered at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals. HOWL was developed at the Sundance Institute Writer's Lab, where Rob and Jeffrey were Sundance Screenwriting Fellows in 2009, and was released theatrically by Oscilloscope Laboratories. It received the Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review.

In addition to his Oscars for The Times of Harvey Milk and Common Threads, Rob has received several Peabody and Emmy Awards, as well as Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships. In 2008, Rob was recognized with the Pioneer Award from the International Documentary Association (IDA) for distinguished lifetime achievement. He has also received achievement awards from Frameline (1990), Outfest (2000) and the Provincetown International Film Festival. In 2016, Epstein was awarded the Kenneth Rainin Foundation Screenwriting Grant by the San Francisco Film Society for his original screenplay Dogpatch (working title).

Career retrospectives honoring Rob's work have been presented at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London (ICA), the Taipei International Film Festival in Taiwan, the Cinémathéque Québécoise in Montreal, and the Pink Apple Film Festival in Zurich.

In addition to his filmmaking career, Rob is a professor at California College of the Arts, where he serves as Co-chair of the Film program. He has been a visiting professor at the Graduate Film Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He serves on the Sundance Institute's Board of Trustees and is a member of the Directors Guild of America as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Documentary Branch where he served as an elected member of the Board of Governors for three terms.
BornApril 6, 1955
  • More at IMDbPro
    • Contact info
    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornApril 6, 1955
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Won 2 Oscars
    • 27 wins & 18 nominations total

Photos8

Quentin Crisp, Rob Epstein, and Jeffrey Friedman in The Celluloid Closet (1995)
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, and Raymond Braun at an event for State of Pride (2019)
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
Rob Epstein
Uma Thurman, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, and Regan Hoffman at an event for The Battle of Amfar (2013)
Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, and Mathilde Krim at an event for The Battle of Amfar (2013)

Known for

The Celluloid Closet (1995)
The Celluloid Closet
7.8
  • Producer
  • 1995
Howl (2010)
Howl
6.6
  • Producer
  • 2010
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
The Times of Harvey Milk
8.2
  • Producer
  • 1984
Paragraph 175 (2000)
Paragraph 175
7.7
  • Producer
  • 2000

Credits

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IMDbPro

Producer

  • Linda Ronstadt in Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (2019)
    Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice
    • producer (p.g.a.)
    • 2019
  • State of Pride (2019)
    State of Pride
    • producer
    • 2019
  • The Gospel of Eureka (2018)
    The Gospel of Eureka
    • executive producer
    • 2018
  • End Game (2018)
    End Game
    • producer
    • Short
    • 2018
  • Killing the Colorado (2016)
    Killing the Colorado
    • executive producer
    • TV Movie
    • 2016
  • And the Oscar Goes to... (2014)
    And the Oscar Goes to...
    • producer
    • TV Movie
    • 2014
  • Elizabeth Taylor and Mathilde Krim in The Battle of Amfar (2013)
    The Battle of Amfar
    • producer
    • Short
    • 2013
  • Entry Denied (2012)
    Entry Denied
    • executive producer
    • Short
    • 2012
  • Howl (2010)
    Howl
    • producer
    • 2010
  • The Pit (2009)
    The Pit
    • executive producer
    • 2009
  • Sex in '69: The Sexual Revolution in America
    • executive producer
    • 2009
  • Chad Allen in Save Me (2007)
    Save Me
    • executive producer
    • 2007
  • Real Sex (1990)
    Real Sex
    • segment producer: London's Erotic Awards
    • TV Series
    • 2002
  • Crime & Punishment (2002)
    Crime & Punishment
    • producer
    • TV Series
    • 2002
  • Paragraph 175 (2000)
    Paragraph 175
    • producer
    • 2000

Director

  • Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music
    • Director
    • Completed
    • 2023
  • Linda Ronstadt in Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (2019)
    Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice
    • Director
    • 2019
  • State of Pride (2019)
    State of Pride
    • Director
    • 2019
  • End Game (2018)
    End Game
    • Director
    • Short
    • 2018
  • And the Oscar Goes to... (2014)
    And the Oscar Goes to...
    • Director
    • TV Movie
    • 2014
  • Amanda Seyfried in Lovelace (2013)
    Lovelace
    • Director
    • 2013
  • Elizabeth Taylor and Mathilde Krim in The Battle of Amfar (2013)
    The Battle of Amfar
    • Director
    • Short
    • 2013
  • Howl (2010)
    Howl
    • Director
    • 2010
  • Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America (2006)
    Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America
    • Director
    • TV Series
    • 2006
  • An Evening with Eddie Gomez
    • Director
    • Video
    • 2005
  • Then and Now 1981-2004
    • Director
    • Short
    • 2004
  • Crime & Punishment (2002)
    Crime & Punishment
    • Director
    • TV Series
    • 2002
  • Underground Zero (2002)
    Underground Zero
    • Director (segment Isaiah's Rap)
    • 2002
  • Paragraph 175 (2000)
    Paragraph 175
    • Director
    • 2000
  • Xtreme: Sports to Die For
    • Director
    • TV Movie
    • 1999
  • The Celluloid Closet (1995)
    The Celluloid Closet
    • Director
    • 1995

Writer

  • And the Oscar Goes to... (2014)
    And the Oscar Goes to...
    • written by
    • TV Movie
    • 2014
  • Howl (2010)
    Howl
    • written for the screen by
    • 2010
  • The Celluloid Closet (1995)
    The Celluloid Closet
    • story
    • 1995
  • Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)
    Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt
    • writer
    • 1989
  • The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
    The Times of Harvey Milk
    • written by (uncredited)
    • 1984

Videos1

Howl: "Artistic Merit"
Clip 0:55
Howl: "Artistic Merit"

Personal details

Edit
  • Alternative name
    • Robert Epstein
  • Born
    • April 6, 1955
    • New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
  • Other works
    Academy Awards, 1984, Best Documentary Feature, himself
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Article
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Graduate of Hampshire College.

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