EXBERLINER Issue 168, February 2018

COLUMN— The Gay Berliner
Gays on film
Walter Crasshole sizes
up this year’s contenders
for the Berlinale’s queer
award, the Teddy.
Andy Warhol was once asked in an interview whether “gay
people are more creative than straight people.” His one word
answer: “No.” But it’s certainly been a busy past year for gays
making movies – if you haven’t caught up with 120 BPM, God’s Own
Country, Women Who Kill, Queercore or The Misandrists yet, fire up
your home projector posthaste. And then start queuing for Berlinale
tickets, because if this year’s potential Teddy huggers are any indication,
we’re definitely not letting up.
Dive into the deep end of the queer pool with the Panorama section,
whose focus this year is the queerly appropriate “body politics”. Top of
the list, at least according to buzz, is Claudia Priscilla and Kiko Goifman’s
Tranny Fag (Bixa Travesty), a documentary on Brazil’s mesmerising trans
performer Linn da Quebrada. For something colourful with plenty of
pep, this one may be tough to beat, but it faces some stiff competition
from fellow Brazilians. Evangelia Kranioti’s Obscuro Barroco, for one,
takes us on a journey from Rio clubs to street carnivals in a cinematic
ode to another trans underground icon, Luana Muniz. Marcio Reolon
and Filipe Matzembacher also shine a spotlight on queer Brazil in Tinta
Bruta, the endearing tale of a camsex model named “Neonboy” and
what happens when he finally steps out from in front of the camera and
into the world. Going across the border to Argentina, the trans focus
surfaces again in Marilyn from Martín Rodríguez Redondo, in which
young Marco lives in the countryside and dreams of the bright and
gender-liberating world of the carnaval in the city.
Going to the northern side of the Americas but taking a dive in
terms of tone, Alina Skrzeszewska’s Game Girls presents a hard look
at the world of an African American lesbian pair on Skid Row in Los
Angeles, living a life between prison and drug and alcohol addiction.
Göran Hugo Olsson takes us back up the social ladder with That
Summer, a much-hyped revisiting of 1975’s gay-beloved classic Grey
Gardens that unearths recently rediscovered footage of the eccentric
Onassis’ relatives the Beales, including some shots by the man who
supplied my opening quote.
Of course the other sections have tentative Teddy competitors,
too. Forum Expanded, for example, includes Jubilee 2033, inspired
by Derek Jarman’s 1978 queer punk dystopia flick and starring
Susanne Sachsse as Ayn Rand. There’s also Escape from Rented
Island, a cinematic essay on Flaming Creatures director and NYC
underground hero Jack Smith.
What about the Hollywood heavies? Gus van Sant’s biopic Don’t
Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot might not be a queer film per se,
but it boasts feminist punk she-roes Carrie Brownstein, Beth Ditto
and Kim Gordon. And then there’s Rupert Everett taking on original
queeristocrat Oscar Wilde in The Happy Prince. But as my colleague
David Opie writes (see page 22), the Teddy is all about giving the
fringe the Rampenlicht, so I’m not sure I expect these two to get the
bear. Plus, Van Sant, don’t you already have a Teddy?
So no, we may not be more creative than straight people, but with
the films up for this year’s queer film prize, no one could accuse us of
not trying to be. Still, the proof will be in this year’s pudding. ■
FEBRUARY 2018