VIRTUAL- Digital Film Screening: "Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution"

A chronicle of the cultural phenomenon known as Queercore
This film series is part of Queer as German Folk, a project celebrating the intersectional histories of Germany’s and America’s diverse LGBTIQ+ communities. A digitally modified version of the exhibition Queer as German Folk and a full program of virtual events is presented by the Goethe-Institut in North America in collaboration with its Goethe Pop Ups and the Schwules Museum Berlin (SMU).

The film will be available to stream from September 25, 10AM CST to September 27, 12AM CST. Please register below to receive the streaming link by email. Advance registrants will receive the link on September 25, 10AM CST.

About the film:
Documentary | Germany | 2017 | 83 min

What happens when the community you need is not the community you have? Tell yourself it exists over and over, make fan zines that fabricate hordes of queer punk revolutionaries, create subversive movies, and distribute those movies widely—and slowly, the community you’ve fabricated might become a real and radical heartbeat that spreads internationally. This is the story that Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution tells, from the start of a pseudo-movement in the mid-1980s, intended to punk the punk scene, to the widespread rise of artists who used radical queer identity to push back equally against gay assimilation and homophobic punk culture.

Interviewees discuss homophobia, gender, feminism, AIDS, assimilation, sex, and, of course, art. The extensive participant list includes Bruce LaBruce, G.B. Jones, Beth Ditto, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, John Waters, Justin Vivian Bond, Lynn Breedlove, Silas Howard, Pansy Division, Penny Arcade, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Gordon, Deke Elash, Tom Jennings, Team Dresch, and many more.
About the filmmaker:
Yony Leyser was born in Chicago in 1984 as the descendant of a German-Iranian-Jewish family. He studied at CalArts and The New School in New York. He has lived as an author and director in Berlin since 2010. He made a name for himself with his award-winning feature films, which focus on queer stories beyond social norms: William S. Burroghs: A Man Within (2010), Desire Will Set You Free (2015) and Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution (2017).

Filmmaker Yony Leyser will be in conversation with Punk Historian David Ensminger on September 27, 1PM CST. More info on this virtual event to come.

PLEASE NOTE: This film is only available to audiences in the US.

Image: © Torch Films