Today, motion pictures are omnipresent and available twenty-four-seven via mouse click, smartphone or HD screen. Audio-visual material strongly influences our public…
Today, motion pictures are omnipresent and available twenty-four-seven via mouse click, smartphone or HD screen. Audio-visual material strongly influences our public and private lives. Already in the Thirties important moments in private contexts were captured on film with a range of different cameras. This footage is now lying in attics or film boxes and in danger of being lost. In fact, these home movies could be historical documents of homosexual life styles, giving insight into previously unknown stories. Based on the documentary «Reel in the Closet» by Stu Maddox, who has dedicated his working life to exploring queer home movies (mainly from the US), Pink Apple has organised a discussion panel about this topic together with Gay Archives Switzerland (Schwulenarchiv Schweiz). Experts provide information about the situation in Swiss archives and institutions that take in private audio-visual material, and the possibilities of making these sociocultural treasures accessible for academic studies and the expansion of the historic picture of homosexuality in the Twentieth century.
Zu diesem Fokus gehören:
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Swiss Premiere Documentary
What did it feel like to be queer in the 1930s? In The Castro during the 1970‘s or the day Harvey Milk was shot?
If you want to feel the past not just read about it, watch the home movies and videos. Look at the community shows LGBTQ people put together. Watch the clips they saved. They go at least as far back as 1939. And those are just the ones we show in this documentary (some for the first time).
Most are still unknown in people’s closets. Soon, many may be thrown away by unknowing friends and family.
So historians are struggling to save this most telling look at a hidden history before it’s lost. That’s what this film shows. The story of queer cinema is well known, but this is the first time LGBTQ personal films and video have been the subject.
“Reel In The Closet” goes beyond the gay community in its ability to prove how each person’s day-to-day life is history. Viewers leave excited to open their own closet and delve into their own past.