There is a scene that, although in different facets, can be found in many films that are shown as part of the “Queer Film Festival” in Munich’s City Kino. In Eva Beling’s documentary, Prejudice and Pride, an actor and director justifies himself for portraying a trans woman in one of his earlier films. He looks slightly distressed as he explains that he would do a few things differently today. When the trans woman repeatedly refers to herself as “transe” in the film, a noticeable feeling of uneasiness runs through the small cinema hall. The young audience in front of and the actor on screen are aware that the pejorative word is offensive. It is an affront that, in the parlance of 2022, has only room in intolerant and reactionary mouths.
Two days later, same place, different scene. The headmaster of a men’s school in “The Schoolmaster’s Games” is on his way to his office. He passes young men holding hands, kissing couples, languid flirting looks. The camera follows him through the building, which is almost flickering with sexual heat. He and his colleague Frank are at least twice as old as their students. They built the place to create a sanctuary where men love men and Queerness can be normal. But Frank is angry and the headmaster is jealous. Both men have experienced violence because of their sexuality. It’s hard for both of them to see how naturally their students are themselves. How openly they do what the Headmaster had to pay for with a scar on his chest.
Director Eva Beling wishes that queer characters would no longer be explained
The penultimate day of the festival, another hall, another film. In Uli Decker’s “Anima – My Father’s Clothes”, the dialogue between the generations does not dare to take center stage in a few scenes, but rather throughout the documentary. Father and daughter feel similar unease about the constraints of their gender identity. An exchange only made it possible for the diaries of the father after his death. “Damn,” sums up the daughter, “we’ve missed each other all our lives.” The difference between the two: The father shared his secret with his wife after decades of silence. The daughter shares his and her queer story with the world.
Queer (film) history is so young that there are worlds of possibilities between two generations. There are concepts, identities, sexualities, rights and freedoms – even if the latter are repeatedly attacked – which are at the same time the result of ongoing struggles and everyday life. Sounding out this area of tension will continue to accompany filmmakers in the future. Ylva Forner, director of “The Schoolmaster’s Games”, is asked what the next motif of the queer film is. She replies that the characters are so human, what moves them is so universal that there might not be a next motif for the queer film. “The least interesting thing about them is their sexuality,” says Forner. Director Eva Beling also wishes that queer characters would no longer be explained. Queerness can, but doesn’t have to, be an issue because the stories go far beyond the questions of who loves whom and how. They show love and jealousy, friendship, growing up and being.
Shortly before the end of the audience discussion, Ylva Forner tells how the headmaster’s gay actor and a student’s actor talked during a break in filming. The younger said, “We actually have the majority here.” The older one replied: “That’s right, no one plays the ‘gay guy'”. Two generations, a common reason for joy, sometimes the worlds are perhaps not so far apart.