Hyena Films e.K.

Germany 2021, 88 min

Over two decades after finishing her documentary Gendernauts in 1999, Monika Treut returns to California to meet the protagonists of her groundbreaking queer film. Sandy Stone, Susan Stryker, Stafford and Max Valerio were once the young pioneers of the trans movement and almost all of them lived in San Francisco, back then the mekka for outsiders. Today they are between 50 and 80 years old, and hardly anyone can still afford to live in the city any more. But the energy of the gendernauts and their supporters Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens is unbroken. GENDERATION throws a utopian look back and shows the creative resistance of the gendernauts against the threatening living conditions in the US of A.

Germany, Taiwan 2012, 83 min
by Monika Treut (Hyena Films e.K.)

THE RAW AND THE COOKED is a documentary exploration of Taiwan's rich culinary traditions and their relationship to the island's unique culture. Taiwan has one of the best and most diverse cuisines in Asia, as food is the foremost passion of its 23 million inhabitants. Taiwan is also a densely populated island. Urbanisation is proceeding while agriculture is in decline. But, there is a growing movement for environmental protection. In our tour around the island’s coastal regions we seek out people who are making a difference with innovative projects to create a sustainable food system.

Germany 2001, 90 min
by Monika Treut (Hyena Films e.K.)

WARRIOR OF LIGHT shot on location in Brazil is a feature-length documentary on Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, award-winning artist and human-rights activist who has gained international recognition for her work with street children in Rio. The film recounts how a woman turned her back on a wealthy lifestyle, driven into action by the execution of 8 streetkids by military police in 1993. In subsequent years Yvonne’s struggle to better the lives of endangered and abandoned children has led her to found "Projeto Uere" ("Children of Light") a radical project committed to protection and education of kids who live in the streets and slums of Rio which has brought her into conflict with Brazil’s wealthy elite.

Germany 1999, 86 min
by Monika Treut (Hyena Films e.K.)

GENDERNAUTS explores phenomena of gender fluidity at the end of the millennium in the Bay Area, California. It is a film about cyborgs, people who alter their bodies and minds with new technologies and chemistry, with an emphasis on biological women who use the male sexual hormone testosterone. We get to know San Francisco’s leading gender mixers: Max Wolf Valerio, who reads from his book, Max, A Man; Jordy Jones and his net art; Texas Tomboy and his video art; Stafford, who explores new business venues and, together with Jordy Jones, organizes "Club Confidential," the world’s leading gender bender event. We meet Hida, an intersexed woman, who happily inhabits the middle ground between male and female; and two extraordinary biological women who support transgender people: sex goddess Annie Sprinkle and ex-centerfold model Tornado, who was Stafford’s lover and is the self-proclaimed mother of Texas Tomboy. We take excursions into the life of the spotted hyena, a very special animal society. The female hyena has an enlarged clitoris that looks like a penis. Her bloodstream carries a large amount of testosterone especially when she’s pregnant. Our tour guide for the journey through shifting gender identities is Sandy Stone, also known as the "Goddess of Cyberspace," who is Director of the ACTLab at the University of Texas at Austin.

1997, 80 min

DIDN’T DO IT FOR LOVE is a documentary portrait of Eva Norvind, a.k.a. Mistress Ava Taurel, born Eva Johanne Chegodaieva Sakonskaya in Trondheim, Norway.The film follows Eva’s many careers, from her time as a showgirl in Paris to becoming Mexico’s Marilyn Monroe in the 1960s to establishing herself as New York’s most famous dominatrix in the 1980s.Using clips from Norvind’s Mexican films, stills from various periods, and interviews with friends, partners and family, Treut’s documentary traces Eva’s search for the wellspring of her obsessive and dark sexuality.

Germany, USA 1992, 26 min

In 1992, film pioneer Monika Treut completed what was likely the first portrait of a transgender man in the history of cinema. Max is the story of a journey to another sex, of experiences with the male sex hormone testosterone, and of hostility within one’s own community. (69th Berlinale PANORAMA 40: A Reflection On the Spirit of the Programme)