New York Memories

Germany

2010

89 Min

Color

1.85:1

German, English

Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
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SCR Rosa von Praunheim, Anna Steegmann

DP Lorenz Haarmann, Jeff Preiss

CAST Anna Steegmann, Divine, Harvey Milk, Rosa von Praunheim, Andy Warhol, Jeff Preiss, Tally Brown, Judith Malina

SOUND Oliver Sechting

Berlinale (Panorama Dokument), BAFICI (Diálogos)

Synopsis

Twenty years ago, the Berlinale’s Panorama section screened Rosa von Praunheim’s Überleben in New York. The film revolved around Claudia, Anna and Uli, who came to New York at the beginning of the eighties; they were all trying gain a foothold in a city that, at the time, was a much tougher place to live in than it is today. Now, twenty years on, Rosa von Praunheim returns to his protagonists in his new film.

Rosa von Praunheim: “Twenty years after my most successful theatrical work, Überleben in New York, I decided to seek out the film’s protagonists, Anna and Claudia. I was surprised to discover what had become of them. At the same time, I also began retracing my own steps in New York all those years ago; looking for images in my old films of the rambunctious seventies with its wild sex parties, riotous demonstrations and eccentric Warhol superstars.

I remembered the tragic eighties and the angry struggle against Aids, which claimed the lives of many of my friends. In the hopeful nineties I filmed the outcry of transsexuals who were no longer prepared to accept being raped and murdered. At the same time, New York’s mayor, Giuliani, began ‘cleansing’ the city. Sex clubs were closed, and artists and the home- less were driven out. Manhattan got richer – but a bit boring. After an absence of more than ten years, I returned to New York with my camera in the spring of 2009. I wanted to know what had happened to my favourite city – the place where I once spent the happiest times of my life.” –Berlinale

Director

Rosa von Praunheim

Rosa von Praunheim, born November 25, 1942, in Riga, during the German occupation under his real name Holger Radtke, grew up with his adoptive parents in East Berlin under the name Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky. After the escape to West Germany in 1953, the family lived at first in the Rhineland and eventually settled in Frankfurt am Main. In Frankfurt, von Praunheim attended a classical language high school but left already after finishing secondary school level. He started to study painting at Offenbach’s Werkkunstschule (today: Hochschule für Gestaltung – HfG). One year later, he transferred to Berlin’s Hochschule für Bildende Künste but did not graduate any of his studies. At this time, during the 1960s, he assumed his stage name Rosa von Praunheim, as reminiscence to his Frankfurt quarter Praunheim and to the “Rosa Winkel” (pink triangle) – the symbol, homosexuals had to wear in the concentration camps during the Third Reich.

In 1967, Rosa von Praunheim made his movie… read more