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Archive: Film

Watch It Online: The Lavender Lens

Monday, March 8, 2010

“The Lavender Lens – 100 Years of Celluloid Queers” is a documentary by filmmaker David Johnson from 1995, I just found it on the sissydude tumblr (Johnson has uploaded it himself a while ago). The movie is a pretty extensive and uncommented montage of both famous and rather unknown queer moments of all film historical eras, starting with the legendary “Gay Brothers” from 1895, one of the first example of a motion picture. Because of it’s length I think it is a good idea to take the advice given on Best Documentary not to watch the movie in one go, but to “dip into it periodically”. Especially since the resolution of the video is not very high.

Posted by Hanson on March 8, 2010 | Tags: Queer Icons, Watch It Online | Comments (0)

William E. Jones: The Retrospective

Thursday, February 25, 2010

You know this picture but you have no idea where it’s been taken from? Then I can help you out: It’s a still of a short movie called “The fall of communism as seen in gay pornography” by William E. Jones from 1988. Jones is an artist and filmmaker who grew up in Ohio and now lives in L.A., teaching film history at the Art Center College of Design. His work  is regularly shown in experimental, video, or gay and lesbian film festivals as well as at important art spaces such as the Venice Biennale, the Tate Modern, the Cinématheque Française and others. The reason why I tell you this is because from this Friday on Jones’ complete film work will be shown at New York City’s Anthology Film Archives in a retrospective co-sponsored by MIX NYC, and by the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at NYU. If you’re from New York you find more information about this retrospective on the AFA website and on buttmagazine.com, my source for this post. To all others I recommend Jones’ pretty extensive website to get an impresson of his stuff.

Posted by Hanson on February 25, 2010 | Tags: Art, Porn | Comments (0)

Sissy Mag #5 Out Now

Wednesday, February 24, 2010


Click here for the website and a pdf version. More about the mag (which unfortunately is completely in German language) here.

Posted by Hanson on February 24, 2010 | Tags: Zine Culture | Comments (0)

HOWL (The Movie): Some Pros And Cons

Monday, February 22, 2010

My boyfriend and I just watched HOWL at the Berlinale. We just tried to put together some good reasons why this is a good movie. And why not. Here we go:

+ James Franco
+ The way the movie reveals the relations between Ginsberg’s live and the poem
+ The court scenes (which must have been easy to shoot because they are based on the original protocols)
+ The poem itself which is being read completely by Franco (click here if you don’t know it yet)
+ A song called “Father Death” Ginsberg himself sings at the end of the movie (watch it below)

- The horrible animations which illustrate the poem as if it was a Pearl Jam song (looks like these animations guys had no idea what the whole thing is about)
- The flashbacks (which depict scenes of Ginsberg’s live in a completely clean way, not really showing anything of the pain this guy went through)
- The way the movie romanticises (gay) history in general (which is something typical for Epstein and Friedman)

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Posted by Hanson on February 22, 2010 | Tags: | Comments (0)

Giorgio Moroder x 2

Friday, February 12, 2010

Posted by Hanson on February 12, 2010 | Tags: Eighties, Music, Seventies | Comments (2)

Watch It Online: Synth Britannia

Friday, February 5, 2010

Synth Britannia is a  documentary that aired on BBC Four in October 2009 and that follows the British synth pop movmement from its early and rather experimental stages in the late seventies to the eighties, when it all of a sudden had a major impact on Western pop culture. The inventors of synth-based pop music such a The Normal, The Human League or OMD where all influenced by computer music heroes such as Kraftwerk and Gorgio Moroder as well as the punk era in which making music was no longer perceived as a the privilege of trained musicians. Unfortunately the documentary focuses mostly on the technical side of this music and on the way it affected and was affected by society in general, the fact that this movement established a whole new style that e.g. allowed men to be androgynous and emotional isn’t really analysed here, it’s only superficially mentioned . Still the film is really worth watching if you like the music and the style of that time. I also posted some of my favourite artists and songs appearing in the film below.

(more…)

Posted by Hanson on February 5, 2010 | Tags: Eighties, Music, Seventies, TV, Watch It Online | Comments (1)

Watch It Online: Cabaret

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Cabaret was released in 1972 and is directed by Bob Fosse, the guy whose Broadway choreographies were the inspiration for Beyonce’s “Single Lady” video. The movie is set in Berlin in the early thirties, a time that on the one hand was a pretty liberal, while on the other the nazis slowly started to take over the social life in Germany. It is partly based on the “Berlin Stories” by gay writer Christopher Isherwood and so became one if the first Hollywood movies that (after the so-called “Hays Code” had lost its impact) very openly adressed issues of love, sexuality and coming out. It is especially worth watching because of the brilliant acting of Liza Minelli who got an oscar for her role as an American singer  called Sally Bowles (I think the film may be the reason for this  demonstration banner by the way.) Here’s the first part of the movie – compared to other clips of this movie on YouTube, the quality of these ones is surprisingly good.

Posted by Hanson on January 31, 2010 | Tags: Watch It Online | Comments (0)

Bruce La Bruce: “Helter Skelter”

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

This saturday evening the opening of Bruce La Bruce’s new exhibition “Helter Skelter” will take place at Peres Projects, Berlin. La Bruce will not only be presenting several prints of photographs he took of Francois Sagat during the shooting of L.A. Zombie, there is also going to be a screening of the movie itself in its latest cut (which is supposed to be pretty close to the the final version). And if you’re not the kind of person who is impressed by attending an official European premiere of a movie you may have your little personal premiere by meeting the real Francois Sagat who will also be around. Could be pretty crowded. More about the exhibtion here.

Posted by Hanson on January 27, 2010 | Tags: Art, Berlin Stuff, Bruce La Bruce, Francois Sagat, Photography | Comments (0)

A Tribute To Homohop: Pick Up The Mic

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Pick Up The Mic is a documentary about the queer hip hop scene and its roots. It premiered at The Toronto Film Festival in 2005 and is available on DVD since last year. The movie brings together nearly all important protagonists of the so called homohop-movement such as Deadlee, Johnny Dangerous, Katastrophe, Soce or Scream Club and can be ordered. on the movie’s webpage. On the blog of the Amoe music stores (where the DVD release was officially celebrated last year) you also find a nice interview with Juba Kalamka, who talks about the film and the way queer hip hop has delevolped until today. Kalamka is a founding member of the legendary gay hip hop act Deep Dickollective and has released a solo album called “oogabooga under fascism” in 2007.

Posted by Hanson on January 26, 2010 | Tags: Activism, Hip Hop, Music | Comments (0)

Fashion Activism

Saturday, January 23, 2010

There are not many reasons to visit the Berlin Fashion Week, but I can offer the Berliners amongst you at least one: Tonight the movie “Comrade Coture – Ein Traum in Erdbeerfolie” is going to be screened at the so-called “Kino Showroom Meile”. The film is a documentray about a a group of  independent fashion designers from East Berlin and premiered last year at the Berlinale. It takes place in the eighties, a time when you hat to be pretty inventive if you wanted to come up with your own fashion creations – a lot of materials weren’t available in the GDR and by the leaders of the state fashion was seen as part of the loathsome individualism of the western societies. The movie is shown at 8.30 pm at the FC Magnet Club in Mitte, after the screening two of the designers are going to talk about the movie. (Thanks, Warbear)

Posted by Hanson on January 23, 2010 | Tags: Berlin Stuff, Eighties, Fashion | Comments (0)