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The Times of Harvey Milk, Directed by Rob Epstein

Black Sand Productions, November 1, 1984 (US)

Written by: Judith Cobun and Carter Wilson

Starring: Harvey Milk and Harvey Fierstein


What is on the outside visible to the eye is entirely physical, a red, yellow, and orange orgy of fury that reaches up into a fiery bouquet. Each flame burns with a vengeance all its own, as if ready at any moment to break free and leapfrog the sky.

These flames burn through Market Street all the way up Polk on to City Hall where things can never be the same again. Tiny cylinders made of nothing but wax and wick emanate the power of the universe from their burning tips, flickering delicately but steadfast in the wind and the night, painting glowing teardrops over an unending trail of darkness that has descended upon a city in mourning. The wake of tortured grief is an absolutely staggering visual. It stretches well beyond the scope of our ability to envision a path to healing.

Bound by shock, a city weeps in the glowing. While two souls are released into the unimaginable void, each fragile flame offers its own silent goodbye. Tens of thousands comprise the whole. Farewell. On and on forever, farewell.

Although the hero’s duties have now ceased, the fires that light up this night will burn on without end as eloquent and powerful symbols of grief and love that have joined to construct an unbreakable fortress of everlasting peace. It is an overwhelming and unprecedented response to violence and is forever etched as a glorious and triumphant tribute to a man who possessed the courage and conviction to believe that he could affect a difference.

They have walked among us. Our part is easy. We just have to follow. The path they have forged is impossible to miss, glazed with crystal prisms of shining light. Their spirits are sunlight that will forever show us the way and keep us protected and warm.

All is peace.

I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. And you … and you … and you … gotta give em hope. Thank you very much.

-Harvey Milk

-G