Queer Visions: Cerise Howard's Choice

Queer Visions is back for a third and final time this year!

Come join us with special guest Cerise Howard as she introduces her programmer’s pick: Rosa von Praunheim’s City of Lost Souls (Stadt Der Verlorenen Seelen, 1983). 

Self-described as a perpetual plotter and schemestress, Cerise has an impressive CV when it comes to queer film. She is the co-founder of Tilde: The Trans and Gender Diverse Film Festival, former director of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and former artistic director of the Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia. She is also regular co-host of 3RRR’s Primal Screen and bassist for the band Queen Kong and the Homo sapiens, led by Yana Alana.

City of Lost Souls is a dazzling, anarchic celebration of queer survival, resistance, and joy. Set against the backdrop of West Berlin’s underground scene, the film brings together a fierce and unforgettable cast of trans and queer performers who electrify the screen with music, glamour, and defiance. Part cabaret, part musical, part documentary, City of Lost Souls is both a snapshot of its time and a timeless testament to queer creativity in the face of marginalisation. Von Praunheim crafts a vibrant portrait of chosen family and artistic rebellion, mixing outrageous performances with moments of moving vulnerability. The result is a film that blurs the line between performance and reality, showing how queer and trans people fashioned their own worlds of beauty, pleasure, and resistance.

Rarely screened and still brimming with energy, City of Lost Souls is not simply a cult classic, it’s a living archive of queer history. We are very excited to have Cerise Howard join us for this screening as we revel in the wonderful world of Rosa von Praunheim’s queer Berlin. Cerise will share with us her love of queer film and why she chose this queer classic.

Queer Visions is a collaboration between Documentary Film Society and Adelaide Queer Film Festival. It is supported by UniSA Justice and Society and Network for Studies in Gender, Sexualities and Equity.