Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt

Common Threads Stories from the Quilt is a 1989 documentary film that tells the story of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman with a musical score written and performed by Bobby McFerrin, the film focuses on several people who are represented by panels in the Quilt, combining personal reminiscences with archive footage of the subjects, along with footage of various politicians, health professionals and other people with AIDS. Each section of the film is punctuated with statistics detailing the number of Americans diagnosed with and dead of AIDS through the early years of the epidemic. The film ends with the first display of the complete to date Quilt at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. during the 1987 Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

Common Threads won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 1990. This was the second Oscar for producerdirector Rob Epstein. He had previously won for The Times of Harvey Milk, a biography of openly gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk. The film also won the Interfilm Award at the 1990 Berlin Film Festival, a GLAAD Media Award for Best TV Documentary, and a Peabody Award.Bobby McFerrins 1990 studio album Medicine Music can easily be passed off as the soundtrack to the film, and it includes the films theme song, Common Threads. The album reached number 146 on the Billboard 200 and numberon the Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. ........

Source: Wikipedia