Telling Pictures

Howl

Starring James Franco
Watch for theatrical release September 24th!

A renegade artist breaking down barriers in search of love and redemption.... an hallucinogenic ride through a prophetic masterpiece that rocked a generation.... a work of art put on trial for obscenity.... HOWL tells the unlikely story of a poem that sparked the counter-culture.

James Franco is uncanny as he channels the young Allen Ginsberg in this unconventional mash-up of poetry, politics, dreams and desire. Also featuring David Strathairn, Jon Hamm, Bob Balaban, Treat Williams, Alessandro Nivola, Mary-Louise Parker, and Jeff Daniels. Animation designed by Ginsberg collaborator Eric Drooker (Illuminated Poems).  See More >

Paragraph 175

Narrated by Rupert Everett
Sundance Documentary Jury Prize for Directing (2000)

Weimar Germany was a homosexual Eden in the 1920s: gay and lesbian nightclubs and magazines flourished, the first homosexual-rights movement was born... and then the Nazis came to power. See More >

The Times of Harvey Milk

Directed By Rob Epstein
Narrated by Harvey Fierstein
Academy Award, Best Documentary Feature (1984) 

San Francisco in the 1970s became a battleground between an emerging, vibrant gay movement and the communities who felt threatened by this new gay political muscle.

In 1978, the struggle came to a head when San Francisco's progressive Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk—one of the first openly gay elected officials anywhere—were murdered in cold blood by Dan White—a former City Supervisor, fireman, and police officer.

The community's response—ranging from silent vigil to violent riots—helped define gay politics as we know it. The Times of Harvey Milk tells an emotional story of communities in conflict, centered on the last year of Harvey Milk's life.

The Times of Harvey Milk was the inspiration for Gus Van Sant's movie Milk. It will be re-released on DVD by the Criterion Collection in 2011. A study guide will be available later this year. See More >

Common Threads - Stories From the Quilt

Narrated by Dustin Hoffman
Academy Award, Best Feature Documentary (1989) 

An Olympic athlete; a gay activist; a boy with hemophilia; a recovering heroin addict; a closeted Navy commander: five very diverse lives that shared a common fate.  Their lives—along with thousands of others—are woven together in a giant memorial patchwork quilt, that is solemnly unfolded in the US capitol to protest the government's refusal to respond to a growing epidemic. Common Threads tells the powerful story of the first decade of the AIDS epidemic in the US. See More >

The Celluloid Closet

Narrated by Lily Tomlin
Emmy Award, Nonfiction Directing (1995) 

Featuring Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Shirley MacLaine, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Curtis, Gore Vidal, Arthur Laurents, Harvey Fierstein, John Schlesinger, Armistead Maupin, Susie Bright, and others. 

The acclaimed documentary based on Vito Russo’s groundbreaking book, The Cellulioid Closet explores the hidden subtext of more than 100 Hollywood movies—from The Maltese Falcon to Spartacus and Rebel Without A Cause to Thelma and Louise and Philadelphia. A lively cinematic journey through evolving lesbian and gay stereotypes—and homosexual self-image—as seen through the first century of movie-making. With clips from over 100 movies, and revealing interviews with many of the artists who created them. See More >

Where Are We? Our Trip Through America

Sundance Film Festival (1992)

Award-winning documentary filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman took a journey through unfamiliar lands—in their own country. Having spent most of their lives on one coast or the other, they wondered what mysteries lay in between. So they piled into a van with a film crew, talking to ordinary Americans they met along the way—who talk sometimes eloquently, often poignantly, about their lives, their hopes, and their dreams. See More >