Silence = Death | |
---|---|
Directed by | Rosa von Praunheim |
Screenplay by | Rosa von Praunheim |
Produced by | Rosa von Praunheim Michael Lupetin |
Starring | Allen Ginsberg Keith Haring David Wojnarowicz Paul Smith Rafael Gamba Peter Kunz Don Moffett Bern Boyle Emilio Cubeiro |
Cinematography | Mike Kuchar |
Edited by | Rosa von Praunheim Mike Shephard |
Production company | Rosa Von Praunheim Filmproduktion |
Distributed by | First Run Features |
Release date |
|
Running time | 60 minutes |
Countries | United States West Germany |
Language | English |
Silence = Death is a 1990 documentary film directed, written, and produced by Rosa von Praunheim (in cooperation with Phil Zwickler). The film received international resonance. [1] [2]
The film centers on the responses of gay artists in New York City to the AIDS crisis. The film's protagonists include David Wojnarowicz, Rafael Gamba, Paul Smith, Peter Kunz, Allen Ginsberg, Don Moffett, Bern Boyle, Keith Haring and Emilio Cubeiro. [3]
Silence = Death is the second part of Rosa von Praunheim's AIDS-Trilogy.
The Guardian wrote in 1992: "Silence = Death and Positive: The best AIDS films to date." [5] The Los Angeles Times wrote: "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." [6] Critic Jerry Tallmer, founder of the Obie Award, wrote: "Rosa (originally Holger) von Praunheim, the brilliant, acerbic director of such breakthrough gay-revolutionist works as Silence & Death and A Virus Knows No Morals ." [7]
A pink triangle has been a symbol for the LGBT community, initially intended as a badge of shame, but later reappropriated as a positive symbol of self-identity. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, it began as one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, distinguishing those imprisoned because they had been identified by authorities as gay men or trans women. In the 1970s, it was revived as a symbol of protest against homophobia, and has since been adopted by the larger LGBT community as a popular symbol of LGBT pride and the LGBT movements and queer liberation movements.
AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, and working to change legislation and public policies.
"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.
Peter Adair was a filmmaker and artist, best known for his pioneering gay and lesbian documentary Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (1977).
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, producer, professor of directing and one of the most influential and famous queer activists in the German-speaking world. A pioneer of Queer Cinema and gay activist from the very beginning, von Praunheim was a key co-founder of the modern lesbian and gay movement in Germany and Switzerland. He was an early advocate of AIDS awareness and safer sex. His films center on queer-related themes and strong female characters, are characterized by excess and employ a campy style. They have featured such personalities as Keith Haring, Larry Kramer, Diamanda Galás, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Judith Malina, Jeff Stryker, Jayne County, Divine, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf and a row of Warhol superstars. In over 50 years, von Praunheim has made more than 150 films. His works influenced the development of LGBTQ+ movements worldwide.
Luis Alfaro is a Chicano performance artist, writer, theater director, and social activist.
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.
Positive 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.
Red Love is a 1982 German film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
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.