The powerful documentary on the life and career of the first openly gay man to win political office in a major American city, and his horrifying assassination.
Harvey Milk never had time to become a household name – he was murdered in 1978 (along with Major George Moscone) by fellow San Francisco official, Dan White, who fired five bullets into Milk as he sat, unarmed, at his desk.
Narrated by Harvey Fierstein, the film tells of the extraordinary rise to power of Harvey Milk, a long-haired, gay camera store owner from the sleepy Castro District, who became one of the city’s most colourful and influential elected officials as well as one of the decade’s most prominent leaders of the lesbian and gay rights movement.
Using interviews, TV footage, snapshots and archival film, directors Rob Epstein and Richard Schmiechen show us Harvey Milk’s background, his aspirations and how his political reputation in the community gradually changed from scepticism to admiration.
Due to a scheduling conflict director Rob Epstein will now provide a short, pre-recorded introduction to the film. A panel discussion will follow the screening with Davina Cooper, Femi Otitoju and Chris Lehmann looking at the relationship between radical local government and community activism for LGBTQ+ equality in Britain – both then and now.
“It reflects an ineluctable moral change in society and Milk emerges as a true martyr, forceful and compassionate. This is tragedy told with love and tears and, where possible, humour. It is an historical document of lasting value.”
Iain Johnstone, The Sunday Times
“If invented, [it] would scarcely be believed. The fact that it is true makes it all the more powerful.”
Derek Malcolm, The Guardian
THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK / Rob Epstein, Richard Schmiechen / USA / 1984 / 88 mins
Rob Epstein is a director, writer and producer who has achieved an international reputation for crafting moving, thought-provoking and socially relevant content for over three decades. He has been honored with two Academy Awards, five Emmy Awards, three Peabodys and both a Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowship for a body of work that has 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. In 2008, Rob was recognized with the Pioneer Award from the International Documentary Association (IDA) for distinguished lifetime achievement, and has received career achievement awards from Frameline, OUTFEST, and the Provincetown International Film Festival. 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 to cultivate a unique brand of socially relevant and pioneering storytelling.
Rob began his career working on the landmark documentary Word Is Out, released in theaters in 1977, airing nationally on prime-time public television, and recently restored for DVD. 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 became an international festival sensation, 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 was recently named as one of “25 most influential documentaries of all time” by the Cinema Eye Honors. 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 most recently, And the Oscar Goes to… for Turner Classic Movies, and Killing The Colorado for Discovery. Moving from documentary into scripted narrative, Rob and Jeffrey collaborated on the feature film HOWL, starring James Franco, which received the Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review; followed by Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard and Sharon Stone. Both films premiered at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals.
In addition to his filmmaking career, Rob is a professor at California College of the Arts, where he also serves as Co-chair of the Film program. He has also been a visiting professor at the Graduate Film Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He currently serves on the Sundance Institute’s Board of Trustees. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he served on the Board of Governors, representing and chairing the Documentary Branch for three terms.
Davina Cooper was an elected Haringey councillor (for Crouch End) between 1986-1990 and vice chair of the Council’s Lesbian and Gay Sub-Committee. Her PhD on the municipal struggle for lesbian and gay equality became her first book, Sexing the City: Lesbian and Gay Politics and the Activist State (1994). She is currently a Research Professor in Law and Political Theory at King’s College London. She recently led a research project exploring the implications of abolishing legal sex status, and her latest book Conceptual Activism: Radical Sense-Making and the Struggle for Gender is out this autumn (Duke UP 2026).
Femi Otitoju is a veteran LGBTQ+ activist, trainer and consultant whose work spans more than four decades. She worked in Haringey Council’s Lesbian and Gay Unit from its establishment in1986 to1988–a period of intense political resistance and pioneering local government equality work. She went on to found Challenge Consultancy, advising public, private and voluntary-sector organisations on equality, diversity and inclusion. Femi has held leadership roles with many LGBTQ+ organisations including Switchboard, Stonewall Housing and the Black Lesbian and Gay Centre. She is currently Chair of Queerwell, a charity supporting LGBTQIA+ mental health and wellbeing across the UK today.
Chris Lehmann is Director of Adult Social Care Strategy and Commissioning at Camden Council and has worked in the public sector for nearly two decades. Chris is a trustee of elop, an LGBTQ+ health and wellbeing charity that specialises in counselling, youth groups and social support networks for the queer community. They chair the Association of Adult Social Services (ADASS) Research Committee and are a part-time PhD student at Birkbeck. Their current research explores the role of chosen families for ageing LGBTQ+ people and how communities can challenge bias, redesign services and influence legal frameworks.