Until the beginning of March, the short documentary “Carla’s Living Room” (35 min) was part of the exhibition “TransTrans” at the Schwules Museum. Now we’re happy to present the film’s online premiere – free for all!

How has our view of gender changed since the early twentieth century? This film from Sabrina Rücker and Brian Andrew Hose aims to explore contemporary perspectives through interviews with trans* and non-binary people living in Berlin today. The protagonists (among them Nadja Schallenberg, Sanni Est and Oska Melina Borcherding) reflect on the past and their lived experiences, also commenting on Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s “Psycho-biological Questionnaire” from 1925, as well as excerpts from the letters that the trans woman Carla Erskine sent to Dr. Harry Benjamin in the early 1950s. The interviews take place in a reimagined staging of Louise Lawrence’s San Francisco living room, where Carla took pictures of her friends to send to Benjamin for his research.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T-zfT7DZuQ
Premiere: 9th April at 7 pm
The film is available online from 9th April at 7 pm until 21st April 11 pm. Some of the interviews are in german, others in English.

Protagonists: Oska Melina Borcherding, Nora Eckert, Cameron Eridan, Sanni Est, Frederik Olek Jurr, Elba Uwe Marlaine Mädger, Veronika Pavlišin, Nova B. Phoenix, Nadja Schallenberg, Anouk Schmitz, Marty Stemme

Conceptt : Annette F. Timm, Sabrina Rücker & Brian Andrew Hose

Production, Interviews, Camera, Sound, Editing: Sabrina Rücker & Brian Andrew Hose

Scenography: Christina Chelaru

Historical Consultation: Annette F. Timm, Rainer Herrn, Michael Thomas Taylor & Alex Bakker

Thanks: Justus Heitzelmann, Birgit Bosold, Athanasios Karanikolas, MetFilm School Berlin

This film is part of the exhibition „TransTrans: Transatlantic Transgender Histories“ (8.11.–2.3.2020), curated by Alex Bakker, Rainer Herrn, Michael Thomas Taylor & Annette F. Timm. Funded by the Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa.