On the eve of 1987's Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, surviving families and friends of people who have died of AIDS prepare panels to be added to a large-scale memorial quilt project. Drawing from the sea of names memorialized, director Robert Epstein focuses on the lives of six people. Alongside the intimate profiles offered, through news footage and interviews, Epstein puts the AIDS crisis in the larger context of social and government response to the disease.
Direction
Epstein's restraint lets grief speak louder than any music cue could.
Editing
Quilt panels as chapter breaks — devastating structural poetry.
Acting
Dustin Hoffman's narration: warm, present, never stealing focus.
Director
Rob Epstein
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The NAMES Project Quilt was conceived in 1985 by activist Cleve Jones — this film helped propel it to national consciousness as the largest community art project in history.
Vito Russo, who tells Jeffrey Sevcik's story, was the author of 'The Celluloid Closet' — he would die of AIDS just three years after filming.
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