Episode 12: Rosa von Praunheim's TRANSEXUAL MENACE

This month on the podcast, Liz and KJ return to the well that is Rosa von Praunheim's vast filmography to take a look at a film that (sadly) has been becoming more and more relevent with each passing day this year: his 1996 documentary TRANSEXUAL MENACE. A companion piece of sorts to his earlier ARMY OF LOVERS OR REVOLT OF THE PERVERTS (1979), the film is a sprawling portrait of America's trans arts and activist movement that features everything from icons like Leslie Feinberg and Virginia Prince to events like the Southern Comfort conference in Atlanta and the Fantasia Fair in Provincetown. We'll be presenting a rare screening of the documentary at IFC Center in New York on Thursday, March 13th at 7pm!

Hello, welcome—and in the spirit of our neighbors to our north, bonjour bienvenue. In this month’s episode, we discuss a film that almost defies belief: a highly popular and critically acclaimed queer film from the 1970s about a drag queen’s ambitions for stardom and his tumultuous friendship with a mentally ill gal-pal—all produced through a deliberate and infamous loophole in the Canadian tax code. The story, and the film, is truly outrageous. Liz and KJ spend this episode discussing Richard Benner’s true gem of a film OUTRAGEOUS!, including how it actually made its star Craig Russell an international drag superstar. They dive into the era of Canadian tax shelter films, and discuss why the kinda-genre doesn’t entirely deserve its bad rap. Your hosts also consider the film’s provocative advertising campaign, what made this film take off as the beloved and acclaimed film in its time versus other 70s gay films, and what issues may have kept this from being seen as a key moment in drag and queer film history. You can catch OUTRAGEOUS! at the IFC Center in Manhattan on Thursday, February 27 at 7PM. If you’re in the New York City metro area, we’d love to see you there!

This month on the podcast, Liz and Keegan take a look at queer filmmaker Gregg Araki's first film. You might know it, it's about two HIV+ gay men on the run after killing a cop, who—oh, wait, no it's not THE LIVING END, it's Araki's actual first film, 1987's THREE BEWILDERED PEOPLE IN THE NIGHT. Shot for $5,000 with a crew of one and a wind-up Bolex, this no-budget wonder follows a gay performance artist, his video artist best friend, and her sexually confused photographer boyfriend, who fall into a disorienting bisexual love triangle over the course of a series of long dark nights in the coffee shops and bedrooms of Los(t) Angeles. Rarely screened theatrically and only ever released on VHS in Japan, THREE BEWILDERED PEOPLE IN THE NIGHT is a forgotten landmark of 80s queer cinema and a fascinating origin for one of the most beloved queer filmmakers of the past several decades. We'll be showing it TONIGHT at IFC Center in Manhattan at 7pm — it's the film's very first screening in New York in about a decade, so hope to see you there.

  What better way to wrap up the year than with a beautiful work of gay adult cinema from a still-underappreciated director? This month, Liz and KJ cover Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.’s DADDY DEAREST—an adult film about the making of an adult film that’s just as dreamlike and wistful as is relentlessly horny. DADDY DEAREST isn’t Bressan’s most famous work—nowhere near as famous as his San Francisco adult films PASSING STRANGERS and FORBIDDEN LETTERS, the foundational documentary GAY USA, the controversial ABUSE, nor his crossover masterpiece BUDDIES—but it truly showcases Bressan’s daring storytelling, clever cinematography, thoughtful editing, and spot-on casting. In this episode, we go through what we love about both Bressan and this film in particular: his love of film history; his talent for blending multiple realities, and his brilliance for representing unbridled desire and pleasure on film. We are screening DADDY DEAREST at the IFC Center on Monday, December 9, at 7pm, in a brand-new 2K restoration by Altered Innocence and the Bressan Project. If you love what you see and also live in New York City, make sure to also check out Adam Baran’s Narrow Rooms series at Anthology Film Archives, where he will be screening another underrated Bressan feature, JUICE, on Saturday, December 14th. 

This month on Cruising the Movies, Liz and KJ take a look at what is undoubtedly one of the most controversial lesbian films ever made: cinematographer-turned-director Gordon Willis's 1980 film, Windows. Talia Shire stars as Emily, a mousy stutterer who endures a bizarre assault at the hands of a stranger after returning home from work one night. While she initially finds comfort and protection in poet Andrea (Elizabeth Ashley), she later comes to find out there's more to her friend than meets the eye. Over the course of the episode, we compare the final film to its radically different originaly screenplay and talk about how it fits in with the other three controversial queer New York films from 1980: Can't Stop the Music (dir. Nancy Walker), Cruising (dir. William Friedkin), and Dressed to Kill (dir. Brian De Palma). And if you're in the New York area, we'll be presenting a very rare 35mm screening of the film at IFC on Monday, November 24th at 7pm!

This month on CRUISING THE MOVIES, Liz and KJ take a look at two very different—but similar!—riffs on Alfred Hitchcock's analyzed-to-death PSYCHO: William Castle's 1961 film HOMICIDAL and Mark Oates and Tom Rubnitz's 1985 video short, PSYKHO III: THE MUSICAL. In HOMICIDAL, the kind-hearted Miriam Webster is framed for the cold-blooded murder of a justice of the peace just as her absent brother Warren returns home from a long trip to Denmark after the death of their father. As tensions begin to flare over who will inherit the sizable fortune, Warren’s mysterious new wife will stop at nothing to make sure it doesn’t go to his sister. With its insanely twisted take on gender and winkingly campy tone (not to mention the "Fright Break"—one of filmmaker William Castle's signature gimmicks), HOMICIDAL plays like something of a drag parody of Hitchcock's original film. Meanwhile, PSYKHO III: THE MUSICAL actually is a drag parody: a videotaped version of Mark Oates' musical adaptation of the Hitchcock film originally staged at the legendary Pyramid Club.

On this episode of CRUISING THE MOVIES, Liz and KJ discuss what they consider one of the best documentaries of all time, regardless of topic: Rosa Von Praunheim's ARMY OF LOVERS OR REVOLT OF THE PERVERTS. Made by the prodigious German filmmaker in the aftermath of his groundbreaking and controversial IT IS NOT THE HOMOSEXUAL WHO IS PERVERSE BUT THE SOCIETY IN WHICH HE LIVES—and at the same time as several other of his New York-based features—ARMY OF LOVERS documents the peaks and valleys of gay liberation in the US during the 1970s. Along the way, Praunheim meets both the historical catalysts of gay liberation as well as a cavalcade of characters, including Rev. Troy Perry, sex god Fred Halsted, and more than one person on the fringes of acceptability. Tune in as we talk about Rosa's longstanding fascination and celebration of the United States, warts and all, his distinctive storytelling style, and this documentary still feels provocative and salient five decades later.

On this episode of CRUISING THE MOVIES, our hosts dive into another queer film classic: Edward D. Wood, Jr..’s GLEN OR GLENDA. Calling anything Ed Wood made a genuine “classic” is a relatively new phenomenon in many film circles. Ed Wood used to be the laughingstock of lazy (and bigoted) critics—his name being shorthand for poorly done and confusing work. Now, amid what would’ve been the filmmaker’s 100th birthday, many more people are seeing his films as fascinating looks at gender, desire, and dreamlike feelings that can’t even be put into words. At once earnest and surreal, we make the case that GLEN OR GLENDA should be seen as a foundational trans film—and how Wood’s personal life shaped some of the storylines you see onscreen. We then continue this conversation with Willow Catelyn McClay, co-author of CORPSES, FOOLS, AND MONSTERS: THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF TRANSNESS IN CINEMA. Liz, KJ, and Willow all discuss how you don’t get to David Lynch without Ed Wood, why domesticity is a recurring tension in trans film images, and where trans cinema may (hopefully) go next.  You can watch a rare 35mm print (!) of GLEN OR GLENDA with us at the IFC Center on Tuesday, August 20 at 7PM. We are pairing it with the short VALERIE, which is a gem of a short about a Black trans woman in 1970s Ohio. CORPSES, FOOLS, AND MONSTERS is  available wherever you do reputable book business.

On this episode of Cruising the Movies, Liz and KJ discuss two classic dyke porn shorts: Fatale Video's SAFE IS DESIRE and SUBURBAN DYKES. Born from the same minds who created On Our Backs magazine, Fatale was the first adult film studio dedicated to making movies by and for lesbians, showcasing lesbian sex and sexuality in a way rarely seen in movies before: diverse, kinky, funny, and above all hot. Our hosts explain how Fatale brought the spirit of On Our Backs into film, why they successfully merged heavy kink and safe sex in SAFE IS DESIRE, and how they took on the myth of lesbian bed death in SUBURBAN DYKES. And if that isn't enough, Liz then interviews the producer of both videos, Nan Kinney!  You can catch both films—and Nan!—at our monthly screening series at the IFC Center, on Monday July 22nd at 7 pm.

On this episode, Liz and KJ are excited to discuss one of their all-time favorites: Frank Ripploh's 1980 debut, TAXI ZUM KLO. Still more thrilling and funny than most of the films that have taken inspiration from it over the past four decades, TAXI ZUM KLO continues to spark conversations about community, identity, and commitment that still feel relevant.  We talk about the film’s thin (and sometimes invisible) line between truth and fiction, the bigger tensions in West German gay liberation, the recurring theme of gay teachers in queer Western films in the 70s and 80s, and the very real reason why this film actually may hit you differently depending on when and where you see it. Speaking of: if you’re in the New York City area, make sure to catch our screening of TAXI ZUM KLO at the IFC Center on Tuesday, June 11 at 7:00PM. We’re screening an all-new restoration—and it’s the first time the film has played in the city in five years! See you there!