Set in a Berlin squat, this hybrid film goes in search of queerness in the work of punk writer Kathy Acker.
The portrait photo of the punk writer Kathy Acker, entitled ‘Twirl’, is the starting point for a discussion with the photographer who took the photo, Del LaGrace Volcano, about gender identity and physical transformation. Kathy Acker’s work was linked with the anti-formalist punk movement of the 70s and 80s. She constructed her novels using the cut-up technique, pastiche and ‘appropriation’, and populated them with rogues, rebels and pirates.
Pirate Boys is a hybrid mix of documentary, fiction, photography and literature, shot on Super 8 film, with a transgender, intersex and genderqueer cast. The film is set in the Tuntenhaus – the ‘Faggot House’, a Berlin squat occupied since 1981 by gay men – and uses literal fragments of Acker’s novel Pussy, King of the Pirates. Seeking out queerness in Acker’s work, this film aims to offer a new perspective on the plasticity of the body in literature and in cinema. The physical presence of the celluloid is visible in all its fragility and invites visitors to watch the film with an eye for tactility.
Part of NORMAL SCHNORMAL, a multidisciplinary programme on normality and other deviations.
DE, 2018, 13’
English spoken, starts every 15'
