Shortbus & Hedwig and the Angry Inch

In the black civil rights movement and gays' political battle, the artistic means of comedy and stylised overdrawing were developed into hard-hitting weapons. The Blitz Cinema section of the programme presents outstanding film works by contemporary witnesses and protagonists of the scene that deal with the cultural identity of African-Americans, subcultural movements like rap and Afro-punk, biographies of transsexuals in pop culture, and the "golden age" of gay New York before the advent of AIDS.

Shortbus, D: John Cameron Mitchell, USA 2006, 98 min, German subtitles

Hedwig and the Angry Inch,D: John Cameron Mitchell, USA 2001, 95 min, OV

A queer double feature from New York director John Cameron Mitchell: Somewhere in New York City is the Shortbus club, a playground for adults who devote themselves to their sex lives in every imaginable creative combination. A humorous counterproposal to the prude America of George W. Bush. "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" is a post-punk neo-glam rock musical about an East German transsexual in New York. The New York Times called it smart, surreal and subversive.