Mike Shephard

Películas

Rex Gildo: The Last Dance
Editor
Rex Gildo’s songs and musicals made him very popular. His best-known song was “Fiesta Mexicana” from 1972. Rosa von Praunheim tells the story of his life in the context of the gay pride movement, the normative pressures of the Schlager music industry, and the profound changes currently underway.
Friendship of Men
Editor
In this docudrama Rosa von Praunheim looks into Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s sexual orientation, especially into his erotic experiences during his travels in Italy. Contrary to the common belief, von Praunheim argues that Goethe was not a heartbreaker and conqueror after all. It was only in Italy, that he had diverse sexual experiences, not least with men. Von Praunheim bases his assumption on letters written by Goethe to his friend Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi about these sexual encounters. Some of the content of these letters is re-encated in the film. At the same time, historians and linguists analyse and classify the letters into their historical context.
Survival in Berlin-Neukölln
Editor
About Stefan Stricker, who calls himself Juwelia and has been running a gallery on Sanderstraße in Berlin Neukölln for many years. Every weekend he invites guests to shamelessly recount from his life and to sing poetic songs written with his friend from Hollywood Jose Promis. Juwelia has been poor and sexy all her life, has always struggled for recognition, but only partially.
Queens Don’t Cry
Editor
Bosom buddies BeV StroganoV, Ovo Maltine, Ichgola Androgyn and Tima die Göttliche are four Berlin drag queens who met in the mid 1980s. These four queens became Germany’s most popular drag performers and have been busy fertilizing the German cultural scene. Besides being performers, they are also political activists – in AIDS awareness, anti-gay violence, the sex workers movement and the struggle against the extreme right and racism. The film tells their story.
The Einstein of Sex: Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld
Editor
Mucho antes que las revueltas de Stonewall y el informe Kinsey, vivió el doctor Magnus Hirschfeld. Siendo un joven judio gay en el Berlín del siglo XIX, Hirschfeld no sólo luchó a favor de los derechos de los gays, sino que fue su descubridor. Rosa von Praunheim, co-fundadora del movimiento de lucha por los derechos civiles para los gays en Alemania y directora de cine, cuenta la historia de Hirschfeld en un exuberante drama histórico. Enlazando una historia fascinante de descubrimiento y romance con una mordaz afición por la política, Von Praunheim presenta este convincente relato del doctor que fundó el primer grupo político gay en 1897 y la primera institución médica para gays, el reconocido Instituto de Ciencia Sexual, que prosperó hasta la llegada del regimen nazi. En Einstein of Sex (apodo que dio a Hirschfeld la prensa americana) un legendario pionero del sexo se encuentra con un inconformista director para crear juntos una celebración de la historia gay.
I Am My Own Woman
Sound
The life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who survived the Nazi reign as a trans woman and helped start the German gay liberation movement. Documentary with some dramatized scenes. Two actors play the young and middle aged Charlotte and she plays herself in the later years.
I Am My Own Woman
Editor
The life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who survived the Nazi reign as a trans woman and helped start the German gay liberation movement. Documentary with some dramatized scenes. Two actors play the young and middle aged Charlotte and she plays herself in the later years.
I Am My Own Woman
Original Music Composer
The life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who survived the Nazi reign as a trans woman and helped start the German gay liberation movement. Documentary with some dramatized scenes. Two actors play the young and middle aged Charlotte and she plays herself in the later years.
Life Is Like a Cucumber
Editor
Although too long by half, this documentary is subtitled "A Trip Through Lotti's Life" and that is essentially what it is. Although done in a style that keeps you guessing what is true and what isn't about her life -- everything from her Aryan lover and her stay in a concentration camp while he is killed for their forbidden love -- it is a fascinating look at this remarkable woman through the eyes and viewfinder of Rosa Von Prauheim.
Silence = Death
Editor
AIDS victims and activists cope with hardship and society’s ignorance.
Positive
Editor
This film powerfully documents New York City's gay community's response to the AIDS crisis as they are forced to organize themselves after the government's failure to stem the epidemic. Activists who are interviewed include playwrite Larry Kramer, People With AIDS Coalition co-founder Michael Callen (who died of AIDS in 1994), New York filmmaker and journalist Phil Zwickler, as well as representatives from ACT-UP, Queer Nation and the Gay Men's Health Crisis.
Anita – Dances of Vice
Editor
En la Berlín moderna (1987), Frau Kutowski se vuelve loca, creyendo que es la notoria (real) Anita Berber, una bailarina de arte desnuda / drogadicta / figura escandalosa de Berlín posterior a la Primera Guerra Mundial. (Berber murió de tuberculosis en 1928, después de haber logrado un éxito y un reconocimiento significativos en todo el mundo de la danza). Frau Kutowski es internada en un hospital psiquiátrico, donde, en su opinión, representa los últimos días de Berber, incluso en sus fantasías, el personal y los pacientes del hospital. , para representar a los amigos y asociados de Anita.
A Virus Knows No Morals
Editor
A Film by Rosa von Praunheim Nurses on the night shift roll dice to see which AIDS patient will die next. The owner of a gay bathhouse gets Kaposi's Sarcoma but tries to keep his mind on profits. An epidemic victim is harassed by a reporter on his death bed - he sticks her with a contaminated syringe. The government opens a quarantine called Hell Gay Land. Gay terrorists kidnap the Minister of Health. A black comedy filled with everybody's worst fears, A Virus Knows No Morals is Rosa von Praunheim's most controversial film to date: a savagely funny burlesque on the AIDS crisis. Irreverent yet deadly serious, the filmmaker covers just about every aspect of AIDS and its effects, as well as the rumors surrounding it. Since the 1960's von Praunheim has produced a provocative body of underground films, making him one of the New German Cinema's most original artists. "Brave and Vicious – Armed Camp!"
The Bite
Turned while visiting New York, down-on-her-luck Neue Deutsche Welle vampire Sylvana struggles to get by in 1980s West Berlin when she realizes none of her friends want to be bitten.
Death Magazine: or How to Be a Flowerpot
Editor
A documentary about "Death" magazine, founded by "Screw" Magazine founder and publisher Al Goldstein, and its eventual failure.
Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts
Assistant Editor
Personal diary-style documentary of German Gay rights activist Von Praunheim's sojourn in the US.
Tally Brown, New York
Sound Editor
Tally Brown, New York is a 1979 documentary film directed, written and produced by Rosa von Praunheim. The film is about the singing and acting career of Tally Brown, a classically trained opera and blues singer who was a star of underground films in New York City and a denizen of its underworld in the late 1960s. In this documentary, Praunheim relies on extensive interviews with Brown, as she recounts her collaboration with Andy Warhol, Taylor Mead and others, as well as her friendships with Holly Woodlawn, and Divine. Brown opens the film with a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” and concludes with “Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide.” The film captures not only Tally Brown’s career but also a particular New York milieu in the 1970s.
Tally Brown, New York
Assistant Director
Tally Brown, New York is a 1979 documentary film directed, written and produced by Rosa von Praunheim. The film is about the singing and acting career of Tally Brown, a classically trained opera and blues singer who was a star of underground films in New York City and a denizen of its underworld in the late 1960s. In this documentary, Praunheim relies on extensive interviews with Brown, as she recounts her collaboration with Andy Warhol, Taylor Mead and others, as well as her friendships with Holly Woodlawn, and Divine. Brown opens the film with a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” and concludes with “Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide.” The film captures not only Tally Brown’s career but also a particular New York milieu in the 1970s.
Tally Brown, New York
Editor
Tally Brown, New York is a 1979 documentary film directed, written and produced by Rosa von Praunheim. The film is about the singing and acting career of Tally Brown, a classically trained opera and blues singer who was a star of underground films in New York City and a denizen of its underworld in the late 1960s. In this documentary, Praunheim relies on extensive interviews with Brown, as she recounts her collaboration with Andy Warhol, Taylor Mead and others, as well as her friendships with Holly Woodlawn, and Divine. Brown opens the film with a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” and concludes with “Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide.” The film captures not only Tally Brown’s career but also a particular New York milieu in the 1970s.