Positive | |
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Directed by | Rosa von Praunheim |
Screenplay by | Rosa von Praunheim |
Produced by | Rosa von Praunheim Phil Zwickler |
Starring | Larry Kramer Michael Callen Diamanda Galás |
Cinematography | Mike Kuchar Elfi Mikesch Evan Estern |
Edited by | Rosa von Praunheim Mike Shephard |
Production company | Rosa Von Praunheim Filmproduktion |
Distributed by | First Run Features. |
Release date |
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Running time | 60 minutes |
Countries | United States West Germany |
Language | English |
Positive is a 1990 documentary film directed, written and produced by Rosa von Praunheim (in cooperation with Phil Zwickler). The film received international resonance. [1]
Positive is about how the gay community in New York City and its activists deal with the AIDS crisis. The film's protagonists include Larry Kramer and Diamanda Galás. [2]
Positive is the first part of Rosa von Praunheim's AIDS-Trilogy.
The Guardian wrote in 1992: "Silence = Death and Positive: The best AIDS films to date [...]." [4] The Los Angeles Times summed it up: "In short, Praunheim is just the man for the job he has taken on with Silence = Death and Positive: he has the breadth of vision, the compassion and the militance and, yes, the sense of humor necessary to tackle the AIDS epidemic in all its aspects." [5]
"New queer cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in Sight & Sound magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s.
Michael Callen was an American singer, songwriter, composer, author, and AIDS activist. Callen was diagnosed with AIDS in 1982 and became a pioneer of AIDS activism in New York City, working closely with his doctor, Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, and Richard Berkowitz. Together, they published articles and pamphlets to raise awareness about the correlation between risky sexual behaviors and AIDS.
Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky, known professionally as Rosa von Praunheim, is a German film director, author, painter and one of the most famous gay rights activists in the German-speaking world. In over 50 years, von Praunheim has made more than 150 films. His works influenced the development of LGBTQ+ rights movements worldwide.
I Am My Own Woman is a 1992 German semi-documentarian film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. The film attracted international attention and was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival in 1993, for example.
It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives is a 1971 German avant-garde film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
Neurosia: 50 Years of Perversity is a 1995 German film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
Silence = Death is a 1990 documentary film directed, written, and produced by Rosa von Praunheim. The film received international resonance.
Anita: Dances of Vice is a 1987 German avant-garde film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
City of Lost Souls is a 1983 German musical film directed by Rosa von Praunheim and performed by drag queens, travesty artists and transgender people. The film received international attention and became a cult movie beyond the LGBT community.
Tally Brown, New York is a 1979 documentary film directed, written and produced by Rosa von Praunheim, centring around the career of Tally Brown.
A Virus Knows No Morals is a 1986 German film directed, written and produced by Rosa von Praunheim. It was one of the first feature films about AIDS worldwide.
Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts is a 1979 German documentary film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
Horror Vacui (German: Horror Vacui - Die Angst vor der Leere) is a 1984 German avant-garde film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
Affengeil is a 1990 German semi-documentarian film by Rosa von Praunheim. The film was shown at the 1991 Toronto International Film Festival and 1992 at the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco, among others.
Dolly, Lotte and Maria is a 1987 German documentary film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. The film recounts the lives of Lotte Goslar, Dolly Haas and Maria Ley-Piscator, three German women performers who achieved success in Berlin in the 1930s. All left Nazi Germany for reasons of conscience, and eventually settled in the United States. After the war, all three remained in America and continued actively pursuing their careers, with mixed success. Each discusses her beginnings as a performer, her achievements in Europe, the reasons that motivated her to leave Germany, her decision to move to the U.S., and her current activities.
Red Love is a 1982 German film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
The German Democratic Republic, a state in Central Europe that existed from 1949 to 1990 before merging with the Federal Republic of Germany, was dominated by heterosexual norms. However, homosexual East Germans experienced decriminalisation during the 1960s, followed by increasing social acceptance and visibility.
Ticket of No Return is a German drama film, directed by Ulrike Ottinger and released in 1979. The film is considered to be the first of Ottinger's "Berlin Trilogy", alongside the later films Freak Orlando and Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press.
Queer art, also known as LGBT+ art or queer aesthetics, broadly refers to modern and contemporary visual art practices that draw on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and various non-heterosexual, non-cisgender imagery and issues. While by definition there can be no singular "queer art", contemporary artists who identify their practices as queer often call upon "utopian and dystopian alternatives to the ordinary, adopt outlaw stances, embrace criminality and opacity, and forge unprecedented kinships and relationships." Queer art is also occasionally very much about sex and the embracing of unauthorised desires.
Julia von Heinz is a German film director and screenwriter.