Footage from Q&As with Rosa von Praunheim, including MoMA’s Cineprobe Screening, 1972

Synopsis

Footage from rare guerilla recordings of Q&As of IT IS NOT THE HOMOSEXUAL WHO IS PERVERSE, BUT THE SOCIETY IN WHICH HE LIVES following the film’s debut as part of MoMA’s Cineprobe program, and another downtown theater. Shoddily assembled from segments of handheld 16mm footage and roughly synchronized with a reel-to-reel audio recording, the footage features the audience haranguing Praunheim about the possible effects of the film on the perception of the queer liberation movement, both in New York (just a year or so after Stonewall) and internationally. Although the film’s reception may strike us as trite today, it’s a vital document of the trends in activism of the era, as well as MoMA’s role in fostering debate. – Museum of Modern Art