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IT IS NOT THE HOMOSEXUAL WHO IS PERVERSE, BUT THE SOCIETY IN WHICH HE LIVES
1971, Germany, dir. Rosa von Praunheim, 67 mins



From moma.org:

Rosa von Praunheim’s radical treatise on gay culture and politics exploded post-Stonewall activism in the early 1970s, and has internationally redefined queer liberation ever since. The film focuses on a Pretty Young Thing named Daniel who moves to West Berlin to immerse himself in gay life, only to find that each new reinvention of his character is another way of assimilating into a toxic and heteronormative structure. All of this is a guise for some of Praunheim’s more notable positions on anti-capitalism, anti-identitarianism, and the meaning of queer solidarity. Notoriously scrappy and cheap, the film’s aesthetic reflects its grassroots politics. Queer film scholar and MoMA staffer Vito Russo wrote to Praunheim: “Your film deserves to be shown here in America. The gay and straight community alike here must be made aware that these things are being discussed and presented elsewhere in the world. It is only through constant exposure and expression that we can ever hope to overcome what has for so many years, for too many years, been an irrational taboo. When people spend their lives fighting for a cause in which they believe, it gives them immeasurable comfort to know that there are others fighting for freedom of expression both in their lives and in their art.”

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