4356 Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90029
Rosa von Praunheim, Stadt Der Verlorenen Seelen (City of Lost Souls), 16mm on digital video, English and German, with English subtitles, 91min., 1983
Like Hedwig in reverse, this 1983 trans punk musical is the instant cult classic you’ve never seen! Blurring the lines between farce and documentary, City follows the wily performances of trans punk legend Jayne County (in her only starring role) and Angie Stardust, who runs a boarding house and the ground-floor restaurant, “Burger Queen,” where her lodgers earn their keep: Tron Von Hollywood, Tara O’Hara, Joaquín la Habana, Judith Flex and Gary. German film enfant terrible Rosa von Praunheim trained his lens on the trans and gender-defying Americans who sought refuge in Berlin’s 80s club scene, catching some of the most honest and alarmingly prescient intergenerational dialogs about trans life ever dedicated to celluloid in the process.