Director: Robert Oppel
Producers: Abel Ferrara and Lori Eastside
Documentary Run Time: 1hr 18 min.
Release: October 25, 2011

Robert Oppel’s documentary Uncle Bob tells the life and murder of his uncle and namesake, Robert Opel — the man who streaked the 46th Academy Awards in 1974, sprinting nude across the stage as David Niven introduced Elizabeth Taylor. Opel’s activism ran deeper than that one audacious stunt: a former speechwriter for then-Governor Ronald Reagan turned gay-rights provocateur, he mounted a mock 1976 presidential campaign under the slogan “Not Just Another Crooked Dick,” before relocating from Los Angeles to San Francisco. In March 1978, he opened Fey-Way Studios at 1287 Howard Street, South of Market — the city’s first gallery devoted to gay male erotic art, giving early institutional exposure to Tom of Finland, Robert Mapplethorpe, and other artists central to the leather and gay visual underground. On July 7, 1979, Opel was shot and killed at the gallery during a robbery attempt, at age 39. Directed by his nephew Robert Oppel, the film weaves narration and reenactment with interviews from those who knew him, including Bea Arthur (archive footage), Thad Beals, Mario Bosco, Bill Bowers, Divine (archive footage), Mike Douglas (archive footage), Stephan Fabus, Jason Fernandez, Abel Ferrara, Tom of Finland, Jack Fritscher, Meissa Hampton, Mike Hurt, Mary Jordan, Robert LaSardo, Jessica Leshnower, Carl Linkhart, Camille O’Grady, and David Luhr. Uncle Bob premiered at Frameline 34, San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ film festival, at the Roxie Theater on June 26, 2010.