Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)

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.

IMDb rating	8.1
Producers	New Yorker Films, Sandollar Productions
Original title	Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt
Directors	Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein
Writers	Cindy Ruskin, Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein

Cast

Dustin Hoffman

as Narrator (voice)

Sara Lewinstein

as Storyteller (Story Subject: Dr. Tom Waddell)

David Mandell

as Storyteller (Story Subject: David Mandell Jr.)

Suzi Mandell

as Storyteller (Story Subject: David Mandell Jr.)

Sallie Perryman

as Storyteller (Story Subject: Robert Perryman)

Vito Russo

as Storyteller (Story Subject: Jeffrey Sevcik)

Tracy Torrey

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

Gregg Baker

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Gary Bauer

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

Robert Bazell

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Kevin Boyle

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Edward Brandt

as Self - Assistant Secretary for Health (archive footage)

Tom Brokaw

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Bobbi Campbell

as Self (archive footage)

David C. Campbell

as Self (archive footage)

Marcus A. Conant

as Self (archive footage)

James Curran

as Self - Center for Disease Control (archive footage)

Bolton Eckert

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Jerry Falwell

as Self - Moral Majority Leader (archive footage)

Virginia Fedosky

as Self (archive footage)

Emil Guillermo

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Bryant Gumbel

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Tim Haas

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Robert Hager

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Charles Howard

as Self (archive footage)

Rock Hudson

as Self (archive footage)

Cleve Jones

as Self

C. Everett Koop

as Self - Surgeon General (archive footage)

Larry Kramer

as Self (archive footage)

Roger Gail Lyon

as Self (archive footage)

David Mandell Jr.

as Self (archive footage)

Kevin McCullough

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Andrea Mitchell

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Eddie Murphy

as Self (archive footage)

Mark Ostfield

as Self (archive footage)

Marcia Pally

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

John Palmer

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Hampton Pearson

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Robert Perryman

as Self (archive footage)

John Politano

as Self

Josie Politano

as Self

Randy Ray

as Self (archive footage)

Robert Ray

as Self (archive footage)

Ricky Ray

as Self (archive footage)

Ronald Reagan

as Self (archive footage)

Neil Schram

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

Heidi Schulman

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)

Jeffrey Sevcik

as Self (archive footage)

Elizabeth Taylor

as Self - Introduction Speaker

Tom Waddell

as Self (archive footage)

Gary Walsh

as Self (archive footage)

James Watkins

as Self - Presidential AIDS Commission (archive footage)

Linda Yee

as Self - News Reporter (archive footage)