Robert Epstein

The Times of Harvey Milk

The Times of Harvey Milk

A true twentieth-century trailblazer, Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world. The Oscar-winning The Times of Harvey Milk, directed by Robert Epstein and produced by Richard Schmiechen, was as groundbreaking as its subject. One of the first feature documentaries to address gay life in America, it’s a work of advocacy itself, bringing Milk’s message of hope and equality to a wider audience. This exhilarating trove of original documentary material and archival footage is as much a vivid portrait of a time and place (San Francisco’s historic Castro District in the seventies) as a testament to the legacy of a political visionary.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1984
  • 88 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.33:1
  • English
  • Spine #557

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • Director-approved digital transfer, from the UCLA Film and Television Archive restoration, with DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentary featuring director Robert Epstein, coeditor Deborah Hoffmann, and photographer Daniel Nicoletta
  • Interview clips not used in the film
  • New interview with documentary filmmaker Jon Else
  • New program about The Times of Harvey Milk and Gus Van Sant’s Milk, featuring Epstein, Van Sant, actor James Franco, and Milk friends Cleve Jones, Anne Kronenberg, and Nicoletta
  • Rare collection of audio and video recordings of Milk
  • Excerpts from Epstein’s research tapes, featuring Milk partner Scott Smith
  • Footage from the film’s Castro Theatre premiere and the 1984 Academy Awards
  • Panel discussion on Supervisor Dan White’s trial
  • Excerpts from the twenty-fifth anniversary commemoration of Milk’s and Mayor George Moscone’s assassinations
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by film critic B. Ruby Rich, a tribute by Milk’s nephew Stuart Milk, and a piece on the film’s restoration by UCLA’s Ross Lipman

    New cover by F. Ron Miller

Purchase Options

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • Director-approved digital transfer, from the UCLA Film and Television Archive restoration, with DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentary featuring director Robert Epstein, coeditor Deborah Hoffmann, and photographer Daniel Nicoletta
  • Interview clips not used in the film
  • New interview with documentary filmmaker Jon Else
  • New program about The Times of Harvey Milk and Gus Van Sant’s Milk, featuring Epstein, Van Sant, actor James Franco, and Milk friends Cleve Jones, Anne Kronenberg, and Nicoletta
  • Rare collection of audio and video recordings of Milk
  • Excerpts from Epstein’s research tapes, featuring Milk partner Scott Smith
  • Footage from the film’s Castro Theatre premiere and the 1984 Academy Awards
  • Panel discussion on Supervisor Dan White’s trial
  • Excerpts from the twenty-fifth anniversary commemoration of Milk’s and Mayor George Moscone’s assassinations
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by film critic B. Ruby Rich, a tribute by Milk’s nephew Stuart Milk, and a piece on the film’s restoration by UCLA’s Ross Lipman

    New cover by F. Ron Miller
The Times of Harvey Milk
Cast
Harvey Milk
San Francisco supervisor
George Moscone
Mayor, City of San Francisco
Anne Kronenberg
City hall aide to Milk
Tory Hartmann
Political consultant
Tom Ammiano
Schoolteacher
Jim Elliot
Auto machinist
Henry Der
Executive director, Chinese for Affirmative Action
Jeannine Yeomans
TV reporter
Dan White
San Francisco supervisor
Bill Kraus
Gay activist
John Briggs
Senator, author of Proposition 6
Sally M. Gearhart
Speech professor
Dianne Feinstein
President, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Credits
Producer
Richard Schmiechen
Director
Robert Epstein
Editors
Deborah Hoffmann
Editors
Robert Epstein
Associate producer
Gregory W. Bex
Assistant editor
Thomas O’Shea
Original music composed and performed by
Mark Isham
Cinematographer
Frances Reid
Sound recordist
Dan Gleich
Narration writers
Judith Coburn
Narration writers
Carter Wilson
Narrator
Harvey Fierstein
Photo research
Wendy Zheutlin
Print media archivist
Robert Hawk
Title design
Michael McNeil
Sound editor
John Benson
Sound mixer
Lee Dichter/Sound One
Additional camera
Emiko Omori
Additional camera
Arthur Bressan Jr.
Additional camera
Peter Adair
Additional camera
Jon Else
Additional camera
Robert Epstein
Additional sound
Sarah Chin
Additional sound
Elizabeth Stevens
Additional sound
Michael Levin

Current

The Times of Harvey Milk: Making History
The Times of Harvey Milk: Making History

This pioneering portrait of queer history is an archive, a political case study, urban geography, melodrama, and cathartic expiation, as well as a dazzling exemplar of 16 mm celluloid.

By B. Ruby Rich

Remembering Harvey Milk on His Ninetieth Birthday
Remembering Harvey Milk on His Ninetieth Birthday

The director of The Times of Harvey Milk pays tribute to one of LGBTQ history’s most beloved trailblazers and looks back on the making of the Oscar-winning documentary portrait.

By Rob Epstein

The Sweet Taste of Queer Victory in The Times of Harvey Milk

One Scene

The Sweet Taste of Queer Victory in The Times of Harvey Milk

The director of Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project and Spaceship Earth reflects on the power of seeing a moment of pure joy—the defeat of California’s homophobic Proposition 6 in 1978—in Rob Epstein’s classic portrait of Harvey Milk.

By Matt Wolf

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Jenni Olson’s Top 10

Jenni Olson is an acclaimed filmmaker, writer, archivist, LGBT film historian, and online pioneer.