Silent Gay Film That The Nazis Tried To Destroy Has Been Restored & Is Now Screening

There’s a tendency to think that for the first 70 or 80 years of cinema, any mention of homosexuality was derogatory, negative or completely absent. However, there were isolated cases that took a different approach, and not all of them were secretive, underground efforts. One of the very earliest was Different From The Others, made in 1919 during the early days of Germany’s Weimar period (the rather decadent era shown in Cabaret, where being gay wasn’t exactly celebrated but where people could find ways to build an LGBT community, but always under threat of prosecution and condemnation).

The silent film is a sympathetic portrayal of a violinist and his relationship with his young protégé, only to be met with blackmail and scandal. The movie criticised German laws criminalising homosexuality and called for fairer treatment for those known to be gay. LGBT activist, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s film was controversial from the outset, sparking a censorship debate and making it difficult to make films about LGBT subjects in Germany for the next few decades. Indeed, it remained controversial enough that when the Nazis rose to power in the 1930s, they attempted to destroy every single copy, with only one incomplete and severely degraded version known to have survived.

As an important part of gay history, Outfest and the UCLA Film and Television Archive set out to restore what remained of the film and save it for posterity. That work is now done and the film can finally be seen again, which, as The Advocate notes, includes its East Coast premiere this Friday as a centerpiece screening at the New York LGBT Film Festival, NewFest, at 6:30 p.m. at the SVA Theater. That will be followed by a panel on its significance, featuring Rob Epstein (The Times of Harvey Milk, The Celluloid Closet), Noah Isenberg, journalist Manuel Betancourt; and the Museum of Modern Art’s Ashley Swinnerton.

As so much gay history has been lost – much of which was never recorded in the first place – it’s always great when something can be saved (and the UCLA Film and Television Archive deserves a lot of credit for its work on this and other early LGBT cinema). Hopefully Different From The Other will be able to get a wider audience soon.