Lovers, Perverts, and Transexual Menaces: Six Films By Rosa von Praunheim
Notorious for boundary-pushing films and tireless activism in his native Germany yet mostly unknown abroad, Rosa von Praunheim has been documenting queer history and sensibility throughout a career that spans 50+ years and over 150 films.
This program features six films from the first half of Praunheim’s decades-long career, including his controversial chronicle of the American gay rights movement (ARMY OF LOVERS OR REVOLT OF THE PERVERTS), his beloved portrait of Warhol superstar Tally Brown (TALLY BROWN, NEW YORK), his caustic AIDS satire (A VIRUS KNOWS NO MORALS), and three of the greatest trans films ever made (CITY OF LOST SOULS, I AM MY OWN WOMAN, TRANSEXUAL MENACE). Rarely screened outside of Germany, these six films are major works of queer cinema ready for new audiences to discover.
This program is in collaboration with queer film historian and programmer Elizabeth Purchell. She will be in attendance for the 9/1 screening of Transexual Menace and the 9/2 screenings of City of Lost Souls & I Am My Own Woman + Charlotte in Sweden. We are also extremely honored to be the first premiering a new 2K scan of I Am My Own Woman (courtesy of Elizabeth Purchell)!
Rosa von Praunheim, Germany, 1979, 108 mins
Lovers, Perverts, and Transexual Menaces: Six Films By Rosa von Praunheim
Shot over the course of seven years, ARMY OF LOVERS OR REVOLT OF THE PERVERTS traces the development and splintering of the American gay rights movement from the forming of the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis in the 1950s through the fight against the Briggs Initiative at the end of the 1970s. A wide-ranging portrait featuring everyone from gay porno legend Fred Halsted to Anita Bryant and beyond, this controversial film is a crucial document of the liberation era and a condemnation of gay complacency that still resonates.