Saturday, November 14, 2015

Via back2stonewall: Is This The First “Gay” Movie Ever Made? – Different From Others (1919) – Video

We all know there is a HUGE selection of gay films available to watch. Many are recent while some began to come into mainstream media in the 1990’s. But is it possible that the first film ever to showcase a gay couple was made almost 100 years ago?

A few years ago the UCLA Film and Television Archives discovered a film that was produced in 1919 Germany. During that time in Germany, a Social Democratic government came into power allowing long-standing censorship laws to be lifted. 

Acting quickly, filmmaker Richard Oswald joined with psychiatrist and gay-rights pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld to write and produce the first gay centered film.

 

Different From The Others was a 90 minute film centered around a famous violinist and his male student. This was a drama that showed a love affair between the two men. Although the film did not show any sex, it is very clear in the film that the two men were in love. Unfortunately, the film suffered many vicious attacks from the right-wing press calling Oswald a “perverted Jew”.

The complete physical copy of the film was lost except for 40 minutes that Hirschfeld edited into a 1926 documentary about tolerance.

As part of the preservation, the gay and lesbian film festival, Outfest, partnered with UCLA Film and Television Archives has reassembled those 40 minutes based on Oswald’s screenplay.
“To use the term ‘restore’ would be wrong,” says Jan-Christopher Horak, director of the archives. “There’s not enough footage for a real restoration. But what we have put together allows people to experience the remarkable culture that existed in Berlin in the 1920s, which was wiped out, of course, by the Nazis. As far as I know, this is the earliest document we have of gays and lesbians being represented on-screen.”
This is an incredible piece of LGBT history. This may be the first example of LGBT people being depicted in film. This also may be one of the first steps towards the fight for LGBT equality. 

Released in released in 1919 and starring Conrad Veidt and Reinhold Schünzel. You can watch Different From Others below:





Make the jump here to read the full and original here

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día - Flower of the day 14/11/2015

“O que está por trás de todos esses jogos de acusação, da possessividade, do ciúme e da culpa? É você acreditar que a sua felicidade depende do outro. Essa é a ilusão básica que faz de você um escravo. A felicidade verdadeira é aquela que vem de dentro e não depende de nada nem de ninguém. A liberdade e a felicidade caminham sempre juntas.” 

“¿Qué está por detrás de todos esos juegos de acusación, de la posesividad, de los celos y de la culpa? Es creer que tu felicidad depende del otro. Esa es la ilusión básica que hace de ti un esclavo. La felicidad verdadera es aquella que viene de adentro y no depende de nada ni de nadie. La libertad y la felicidad caminan siempre juntas.”

“What is behind all of these games of accusation, possessiveness, jealousy, and guilt? It is the belief that our happiness depends on the other. This is the basic illusion that makes us into a slave. True happiness comes from within, and it doesn’t depend on anything or anyone. Freedom and happiness always walk hand-in-hand.”

Today's Daily Dharma: The Chaos Under the Hood

The Chaos Under the Hood
No matter how savvy and independent and self-controlled we may presume ourselves to be, without mindfulness, chaos is what we discover when we begin to look under the hood.
—Kathleen Dowling Singh, "The Chaos Under the Hood"
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