Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt

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.

Dustin Hoffman

(Narrator (voice))

Sara Lewinstein

(Storyteller (Story Subject: Dr. Tom Waddell))

David Mandell

(Storyteller (Story Subject: David Mandell Jr.))

Suzi Mandell

(Storyteller (Story Subject: David Mandell Jr.))

Sallie Perryman

(Storyteller (Story Subject: Robert Perryman))

Vito Russo

(Storyteller (Story Subject: Jeffrey Sevcik))

Tracy Torrey

(Storyteller (Story Subject: Self and David C. Campbell))

Gregg Baker

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Gary Bauer

(Self - Policy Advisor to the President (archive footage))

Robert Bazell

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Kevin Boyle

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Edward Brandt

(Self - Assistant Secretary for Health (archive footage))

Tom Brokaw

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Bobbi Campbell

(Self (archive footage))

David C. Campbell

(Self (archive footage))

Marcus A. Conant

(Self (archive footage))

James Curran

(Self - Center for Disease Control (archive footage))

Bolton Eckert

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Jerry Falwell

(Self - Moral Majority Leader (archive footage))

Virginia Fedosky

(Self (archive footage))

Emil Guillermo

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Bryant Gumbel

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Tim Haas

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Robert Hager

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Charles Howard

(Self (archive footage))

Rock Hudson

(Self (archive footage))

Cleve Jones

(Self)

C. Everett Koop

(Self - Surgeon General (archive footage))

Larry Kramer

(Self (archive footage))

Roger Gail Lyon

(Self (archive footage))

David Mandell Jr.

(Self (archive footage))

Kevin McCullough

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Andrea Mitchell

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Eddie Murphy

(Self (archive footage))

Mark Ostfield

(Self (archive footage))

Marcia Pally

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

John Palmer

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Hampton Pearson

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Robert Perryman

(Self (archive footage))

John Politano

(Self)

Josie Politano

(Self)

Randy Ray

(Self (archive footage))

Robert Ray

(Self (archive footage))

Ricky Ray

(Self (archive footage))

Ronald Reagan

(Self (archive footage))

Neil Schram

(Self - Los Angeles AIDS Task Force (archive footage))

Heidi Schulman

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))

Jeffrey Sevcik

(Self (archive footage))

Elizabeth Taylor

(Self - Introduction Speaker)

Tom Waddell

(Self (archive footage))

Gary Walsh

(Self (archive footage))

James Watkins

(Self - Presidential AIDS Commission (archive footage))

Linda Yee

(Self - News Reporter (archive footage))