QUEENS DON’T CRY

Ichgola Androgyn, Bev Stroganov, Tima die Göttliche and Ovo Maltine are four headstrong transvestites who met in West Berlin in the mid-eighties. These four queens have been busy fertilizing the cultural scene in both Germany and the rest of the world ever since. Time and again, Rosa von Praunheim has been fortunate enough to work with each of them in various films. Something they all share is the fact that they are not mere performers but are also politically active—in AIDS awareness, events against anti-gay violence, the prostitutes’ movement, the struggle against the extreme Right and racism. They first performed at Berlin’s gay center «SchwuZ», and then all over Berlin and Germany. Three of them are HIV positive, which means they are engaged in a constant personal battle for survival. This film is a portrait of these four willful, courageous transvestites, while it also describes an important part of Berlin’s cultural scene.