“Werdet stolz auf eure Homosexualität! Raus aus den Toiletten, rein in die Strassen! Freiheit für die Schwulen!”Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt [It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives] (Rosa von Praunheim, 1971)
Jul
6
National Daniel Day
A gay couple kissing on the street in front of a black-tiled Berlin bar. A third gay man nearby looks away. DP: Robert van Ackeren.
Daniel (Bernd Feuerhelm) is a young man in #WestBerlin exploring his homosexuality. Initially he opts for a spießbürgerlich, petit-bourgeois, almost heterosexual affair. He then probes further, swings by Berlin's public toilets and pools. Only when he encounters a leftwing gay commune he finds that pride, not conformity, is his way of living his life.
Von Praunheim's Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers is a plea for rebellion and visibility. For revolt and love. A wakeup call for gays and straights alike. Such a stir this film pamphlet made it became the blueprint for West-Germany's gay liberation movement.
Berlin
“An diesem Tag war das Bild, drei Monate nach Beginn und 67 Arbeitstagen fertig.”Ein Bild von Sarah Schumann [A Picture of Sarah Schumann] (Harun Farocki, 1978)
Jun
26
National Sarah Day
A close-up of the artist's hand at work. More stills and details about this film on Frieze. DP: Ingo Kratisch.
Commissioned for a West-German TV series called Kunstgeschichten (litt. both “art stories” and “#art histories”), filmmaker Harun Farocki visits artist Sarah Schumann in her #Berlin studio.
– narrator
The resulting documentary shows the process of creating one art piece over the course of nine weeks. Schumann's work in that period consists of collage portraits of women important in her life.
– I don't go to school anymore. – Why not? You don't like the new teachers? – I have to work now.Germania anno zero [Germany Year Zero] (Roberto Rossellini, 1948)
Feb
6
National Sickie Day
Edmund (Edmund Köhler) walking through rubble in a post-apocalyptic Berlin. DP: Robert Juillard.
Twelve-year-old Edmund – the oldest kid to survive – works to support his whole family including his sick bedridden father while the remains of what was a thousand-year empire lies in rubbles around them.
Following Roma città aperta (1945) and Paisà (1946) of #Rossellini's unofficial war trilogy.