<strong>Ben Walters:</strong> The new docudrama Der Kreis looks at a groundbreakg gay rights anisatn facg prejudice and harassment 1950s Swzerland. Why is LGBTQ film tryg to reclaim history?
Contents:
- THE CIRCLE: WHY IS GAY CEMA SO FIXATED ON THE PAST?
- REVIEW: ‘THE CIRCLE’ A RICHLY ABSORBG DOCUDRAMA ABOUT SWISS GAY UPLE
- BERL: GAY EMANCIPATN DOCUDRAMA ‘THE CIRCLE’ WS TEDDY AWARD
THE CIRCLE: WHY IS GAY CEMA SO FIXATED ON THE PAST?
* the circle gay film *
” This story is about an early gay-rights group lled the Circle, which is also the tle of Hpt’s new film – one of a growg number of featur puttg stori om the LGBTQ archiv up on the big Circle (or Der Kreis German) was one of the world’s first anisatns dited to lbian and gay rights. Origatg 1932, aimed to offer reassurance, support and tn to homosexuals – first through s magaze, then through a social club – as well as gently lobbyg for reform.
Unually for a European untry, Swzerland did not outlaw homosexualy, and s ntraly ensured that the Circle, unlike other European gay groups, survived the war.
As the pair beg a tentative romance, Ernst grows more polilly active; meanwhile, a murr draws attentn to gay subculture general and the Circle particular, sparkg a reactnary social, media and police film evotively recreat this te story through the nventnal trappgs of perd drama, such as judic productn sign and appropriate mic. It was a strategy spurred by fancial necsy – the film’s producers uldn’t secure fundg to plete an entirely dramatic feature as planned – but the rultg hybrid is a powerful document of a neglected perd of gay history wh much to tell about some ways, is not surprisg that the story of the Circle is unfaiar.
REVIEW: ‘THE CIRCLE’ A RICHLY ABSORBG DOCUDRAMA ABOUT SWISS GAY UPLE
Stefan Hpt’s “The Circle” tells the story of a gay Swiss uple, om their (dramatized) meetg the 1950s to documentary terviews today. * the circle gay film *
Even if homosexualy was technilly legal Swzerland, “they had to be unrver.
BERL: GAY EMANCIPATN DOCUDRAMA ‘THE CIRCLE’ WS TEDDY AWARD
The te-life gay rights battle at the heart of “The Circle” is an unual, unrexposed one that mers eher substantial documentary or rivetg narrative treatment, so one n hardly blame practised docu helmer Stefan Hpt for attemptg to have both ways. * the circle gay film *
Later, beg gay beme a huge subject wh Aids – but that was the subject, not lookg back history.
Now I get the feelg many younger gay people Zürich really love to party but not thk about the past so much. ) As Hpt suggts, gay art and activism have often foced on crisis management and the pursu of legal equaly.
New York PremiereA Teddy Award wner at the Berl Film Ftival, <em>The Circle ptur an extraordary romance between a sger and a schoolteacher, set agast the backdrop of Swzerland’s thrivg post-WWII unrground gay movement. * the circle gay film *
Such approach affirm the ia that gay and lbian progrs is part of the universal story of our natns’ social history. Pictur such as 1987’s Mrice, 1998’s Wil, 2005’s Brokeback Mounta, 2009’s A Sgle Man or this year’s The Imatn Game, meanwhile, ve to empathise wh the cshg social reprsn unr which their gay protagonists labour even as they imply the easg of such burns recent all their heartache, then, the films generally leave wh the reassurg sense that thgs have got better – and, of urse, wh a richer, more rmed unrstandg of how that change has e about.
After all, ’s about a gay subject, isn’t ? ’ As if gay people would never watch a love story between a man and a woman.
“This film remds gays of today that they have a history worth knowg about, that they have roots down to generatns before, ” the real-life Ostertag and Rapp tell me by email. We homosexuals will always be a mory. 20, 2014Stefan Hpt’s “The Circle” tak s name om an unrground journal and gay club Zurich the mid-20th century.
Stefan Hpt's film blends documentary and drama, recreatg an untold story of gay life 1950s Zurich * the circle gay film *
Our entrance to this rner of history through the story of Ernst Ostertag and Röbi Rapp, which is told through documentary terviews wh this sweet, be-sweatered elrly uple and a nscient dramatizatn of their urtship the Swiss cy was a draw for gays at the time, partly bee homosexualy was not illegal there, and Mr. Ostertag, a gay teacher at a girls’ school, fds both a welg muny and the cutie-pie drag sger Mr. The durable thread of their romance is traced through the strs of -workers’ spicns and the police crackdowns after a seri of murrs volvg gay sense of an visible world beg revealed is more potent than the film’s fairly standard portrayal of closeted life.
to a gay male clientele. “The Circle” were “ the only gay mega events the world. was a gay utopia this perd and that even the most progrsive-md of.