Movies

The Times of Harvey Milk  by Robert Epstein

The Times of Harvey Milk was an american documentary co-written, co-produced and directed by Robert Epstein. It chronicles Harvey Milks political career from being an activist to being a symbol of gay political achievement. On November 27, 1978 when he was a member of the California Board of Supervisors, Harvey and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were assasinated. It was said that they were assasinated by Harveys fellow supervisor, Dan White. The motives of the assasination was due to Milks open homosexualty, Whites social conservatism and the Mayors support for Milk (The Times of Harvey Milk, n.d.)

Many consider Harvey as a political  outsider and  wanabe . Although he worked for gay rights, he also focused on human rights. This documentary did not focused on the fact that Harvey was gay, but rather his battles for the gay rights. Since Harvey was a gay activist, this documentary was aimed to inform the audience of the things that he was involved with. The greatest political battle that Harvey fought for was against the Briggs Proposition, which restricted open gay people and their supporters to work on public school system. It also presents the complete story of Dan White, his reasons for assasinating Milk, and the publics reactions towards the verdict of the murder trial (The Times of Harvey Milk, n.d.)

With regards to the films producer, Robert Epstien originally started this documentary as a small film. His real focus was filming on the Briggs Proposition and how the public would react with what was perceived as the gay-rights movement (Epstien, n.d.).

According to Epstein (n.d.), he wanted to do a film that would be dialectical and would show opposing points of view such as what were the issues all about, the reasons why the public were fearful of gay people and why the gay community were afraid of fundamentalism. Later on, Harvey, being the forefront of the gay movement, captivated Epsteins interest especially his leadership. When Harvey was assasinated, it became clear for Epstein to make this documentary rather than focusing on the briggs Proposition. As a result of this wonderful documentary, it received positive feedbacks from the film critics as well as won the Academy Award in 1985 for the best documentary film (The New York Times, n.d.).

Epstein made this documentary by assembling news reports, archival footages, original interviews and exclusive documentary footage, so that Harvey Milk can be credited as the lead. Since the documentary was funded by the gay community through the efforts of Robert Epstein, it can be considered as an inside reference.

According to Epstein (n.d.), The Times of Harvey Milk was a community-based project. It emerged and sustained within the community. Initially, Epstein did a fundraiser for 300 people, in which he brought a 15-minute sample reel. In an intstant, they were able to raise 5,000. Along with his co-producer Richard Schmiechen, they continued to raise funds within New York.

However, it was not an easy task for the director especially when getting newsreel footages and archivals. Fortunately, they were able to negotiate with the staff of the news station who believed in their project. They also did their own interviews of the people in the community.  Also, Epstien did an extensive research with the character of Harvey Milk, through his neighbors, friends and some common folks to get their personal opinions (n.d.).

In addition, having an inside approach to the documentary, Epstein focused his research more on Harvey Milk, though he was assasinated together with Mayor George Moscone. According to the director (n.d.), the real intention of the documentary is about Harvey Milk and for the gay community to be recognized. He added that though Moscone was in favor of Harvey, it was really the gay community that acted as the conscience of the city and that they should be recognized (n.d.).

The thorough presentation of Harvey Milks achievements and political views, the Briggs Proposition and its consequences, reactions of the gay community towards the issue, fundraising of the gay community for the development of film, and Robert Epstein as an insider to the gay community has greatly contributed to the overall development and outcome of the documentary.

Paris is Burning by Jennie Livingston
This documentary released on 1990 is about the  ball culturedrag nights  of the Latino, American, African-American gays and transgendered community in New York City. Miramax films released this documentry, which was directed by Jeniffer Livingston (Paris is Burning, n.d.).

It explores an elaborately-structured ball wherein contestants must do a fashion model-like walk on the so-called  drag ball . They will then be judged according to various criteria like clothing style, dancing ability and realness of their  drag . Most of the footages in the film alternates between the drag balls and interviews coducted to the members of what was then known as the  underground  community. Prominent members of the scene include Dorian Coery, Willi Ninja, Anji and Venus Xtravaganza and Pepper LaBeija. Most of them are representatives of various  houses , serving as social groups, intentional families and performance teams (Green, 1993).

In addition, the documentary also explores how the participants deal with issues like homophobia, racism, poverty and AIDS. For instance, some of them became clothes shoplifters and commercial sex workers, others were thrown out of homes by their homophobic parents, while another one saved money for his sex reassignment surgery. By doing one-on-one interviews on the participants, Director Jennie Livingston was able to show their struggles in life while maintaining strength, pride and humor to survive. In this documentary, the drag culture is presented as a complex performance of class, race and gender, in which each of the participants express their desires, aspirations and indentity (Green, 1993).

The documentary also depicts the origins of the dance style known as  voguing , wherein the ball-walking participants  stop and freeze  in glamorous styles   similar to that of a model in Vogue magazine (Green, 1993).

Upon the release of this documentary, it instantly gained positive to mediocre reviews from film critics as well as received nominations and awards on various award-giving bodies. Paris is Burning was also used in universities as a study tool in classes on cultural, film and critical studies, American Latino and African studies, gender and queer studies, anthropology and dance (Bell Hooks, 1996).

One of the works of Director Jennie Livingston, Paris is Burning gained success due to its respectful and sensitive ways of exposing the gay community, which was then considered as an underground subculture.

According to the director (2009), she became inspired to do Paris is Burning when she was taking filmmaking class at the New York University. Being an outsider to the culture and the ways of living of the gays in New York, it became a challenging task for Jennie to do the film. She got interested in doing the film when she saw a couple of men dancing and doing poses known as  vogueing . She was then invited to the ball where she took some photographs while interviewing the involved participants. Though Director Jennie Livingston was considered an outsider, she became fascinated on their culture, which added to the overall development of the film. To further understand the culture that she was filming, she also immersed herself in all kinds of related ideas and literatures (2009).

According to Jennie Livingston (2009), it took her seven years to make the whole documentary, alternating between going to the balls, interviewing and photographing the participants, starting to raise funds and completing the editing (2009).

Director Robert Epstein as an insider and Jennie Livingston as an outsider to the community involved really helped for the development of the film. On the one hand, since Robert Epstien was part of the gay community, he already had the idea and concepts in doing the film. The Times of Harvey Milk was even supported by the gay community and other involved personalities for the documentary to be recognized. On the other hand, Director Jennie Livingston as an outsider thoroughly studied the literature of the ball culture as well as mingled with the involved participants to further understand their beliefs and rights. As a result, Paris is Burning became highly appreciated by the public.

To conclude, being an insider or an outsider to a certain group will definitely affect the development of a certain study. In this case, The Times of Harvet Milk and Paris is Burning were the results of hardwork and extensive research by both Robert Epstein and Jennie Livingston.