In the "Gay History Box" of the Edition Salzgeber five important documentaries about queer life are available as a collection, that belong in every school. IWWIT presents one of the films every Saturday. Today: "The Times of Harvey Milk"
"The Times of Harvey Milk" won the Oscar for "Best Documentary" in 1985. Back then, Oscars were still "won" and didn't just "go" to someone. While producer Richard Schmiechen gave the acceptance speech, director Rob Epstein stood smiling behind him on the stage and was probably already looking forward to the continuation of his career: just five years later, he was honoured for "Common Threads: Tales from the Quilt" (which can also be found in the "Gay History Box") his second Academy Award - and many, many more film awards since then, including two Teddies for "The Celluloid Closet" and "Paragraph 175".
The fact that Epstein has not become as famous as Michael Moore as a documentary filmmaker is probably due to his themes: All of his films deal with the visibility of gay life or its necessity, whether in politics, in everyday life or in the medium of film itself. Together with his production partner Jeffrey Friedman, Epstein has been turning over cultural and historical stones under which gay life comes to light for 20 years. "The Times of Harvey Milk" was Epstein's first major achievement.
The documentary film about the world's first openly gay man in an important political office - Milk was a city councillor and representative of the mayor - is still impressive and astonishingly topical today.
Large parts of the feature film "Milk", for which Sean Penn won an Oscar two years ago, can be directly traced back to Epstein's reconstruction, as "Milk" director Gus van Sant openly admits: 'Without Epstein's film, mine probably wouldn't exist,' the Oscar winner has said in interviews.
The film shows Milk as a person with strengths and weaknesses
Schmiechen and Epstein actually wanted to make a documentary in 1978 about Milk's fight against "Proposition 6", an amendment to San Francisco's city ordinance that would have made it possible to summarily dismiss openly gay city employees, teachers and educators on the basis of their sexual orientation. The fact that the majority of the population ultimately voted against the amendment was to Harvey Milk's credit and is his political legacy.
Epstein set himself the task of capturing the man behind it on celluloid when Milk was shot. This seems to have been achieved for eternity. Where in "Milk" van Sant stylised his main protagonist as a combative hero who allowed himself to be killed for his own, in "The Times of Harvey Milk" the other sides of the man also shine through: his vanity, his media affiliation, his irascibility, his stubbornness, but also his sense of humour and his kindness.
"Milk" is a memorial, "The Times of Harvey Milk" a document that places Milk's life in a larger context.
(pasch)
"The Times of Harvey Milk", D/USA 1984-1999
