Gay Men Straight Dictatorships Attending: Julianna Ugrin
SYNOPSIS “For gay men oral remembering, the opening of the files of the dictatorship is alchemy.” Our one-and-a-half-hour-long creative, socio-documentary follows four young gay detectives as they unravel the life stories of nine elderly Hungarian and German men. They would like to find out what it meant to be gay before the German unification, before the fall of the Communist regimes. What did it feel like to remain secretive, not to disclose their gay identity to their families and colleagues? Homosexuality used to be criminalized until 1961 in Hungary and until 1969 in Germany, yet even after abolishing its prohibition police would easily find an opportunity to blackmail these people and thereby to involve them in the snitch networks. While the former „country of the most cheerful barracks” used to be considered (bona fide) by gay men from the other eastern European countries as paradise, today Hungary has stepped onto a path of turning fascist by its anti-Semitic, racist, homophobic political speeches in the Parliament. In Germany societal opinion is supportive and in case of discrimination the implementation of law by police and lawyers is reliable. In Hungary, the two-year rule by the Christian-Democratic and conservative governmental
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Genre: Documentary Director: Mária Takács Writer: Mária Takács, Dr. Gyöngyi Schwarcz Producer: Julianna Ugrin Budget: € 187.140 Company: Éclipse Film coalition is increasingly hampering the acceptance of the gay minority, their harmonious coexistence with majoritarian society. The movie interprets the past 70 years as reflected in the unravelled personal experiences, in the requested secret police files, in the social and legal environment of contemporary gay subculture. The film is shot by an internal and an external crew. The internal crew is made up of the four thirty something guys who seek out the members of the older generation and bring out their stories. The stories are woven together through the narration of one of the guys, the closeted DOP. As the film progresses we slowly get to know the world and personal stories of the young guys. The external crew follows this “investigation”: their camera uncovers the younger gay men discussing and analysing what they just heard, as well as how they – with the help of feature film elements – attempt to breathe life into these stories. They act out for instance the world of Egyetem bar, the legendary place throughout East Central Europe, by involving the older protagonists as well. Furthermore they experiment how non-verbal cruising occurred on the main square of Pécs or how it was for someone under surveillance to get into a relationship with an east German gay man either in Budapest or in East Berlin.