Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe

A look at the life and contribution of Sam Wagstaff (1921-1987), curator, trend-setter, collector of photographs, and lover and guide to Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), told chronologically with archival footage, photographs, and contemporary interviews. Wagstaff is upper class, handsome, and gay, reinventing himself after World War II as a curator, with extraordinary success. By the 1970s, he’s friends with Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith, his mother has left him a fortune, and he’s collecting old photographs by the score. Many who comment discuss his largely forgotten contribution to art – the discovery of photography. The film sets the record straight.