Vienna Queerstories
2023
As the history of a subculture, queer history highlights historical gaps. Representations of queer ways of life were, as per prohibitive Austrian laws, overwhelmingly ignored in film and television well into the 1990s. The abolition of the complete ban on homosexuality in 1971 was followed by four new paragraphs in the penal code, including a ban on advertising and clubs that lasted until 1996. This makes ephemeral audiovisual traces of the LGBTQI+ community even more meaningful (from home movies to club films and activist videos). These films and videos are resources for emancipatory utopias of subjectivity, sociability, and collectivity. Under the working title of "Rainbow Films," they have served at the Film Museum to consider questions relating to curating and visual ethics. They form the starting point for the project Vienna Queerstories – a collaboration with the department of Applied Photography and Time-Based Media at the University of Applied Arts.While queer ways of life proliferate today and benefit from more public visibility, they are also confronted by a new wave of homo and transphobia. In the everyday work of applied photographers producing images, publicly accessible images pose the question of how queerness, gender, corporeality, and sexual identity can be portrayed outside of cliches. This year, they have once again looked for possibilities in free, miniature films inspired by glimpses into the collection. (Katharina Müller, Caroline Heider / Translation: Ted Fendt)
Vœlkerball Lukas Thüringer. AT, 2023, 4 min
We're here. We're queer. Get used to it! Kia Sciarrone. AT, 2023, 3 min
Chasing The Butterfly Elif Gündüz. AT, 2023, 7 min
IRINA Anna Skuratovski. AT, 2023, 3 min
Tonspur Jul Marian Schadauer. AT, 2023, 16 min
SPIELPLATZ Nikola Josip. AT, 2023, 10 min
Häkeln lassen Maximilian Bauer. AT, 2023, 3 min
Date of the public presentation with the filmmakers in attendance: October 14, 2023
