Αll over the world and every time, even under the most cruel dictatorships, film- makers rose to the occasion defending their rights and inventing representa- tions – more just and more open – of love and desire. Surveying the numerous initiatives and masterpieces, we mention those which are indispensable for writing this history: Le Ménage moderne de Madame Butterfly (Bernard Na- tan), Ossi Osvalda (Ernst Lubitsch), Mikaël (C.T. Dreyer), Un Chant d’amour (Jean Genet), Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke), Funeral Parade of Roses (Toshio Matsumoto), Pink Narcissus (James Bidgood), Fox and his friends (R.W. Fassbinder), Ixe (Lionel Soukaz), Tiresia (Bertrand Bonello)…
Our selection – among the films, which, because of their courage, energy and beauty, challenged their times and subsequently contributed to our libera- tion – has privileged those glorifying fiction and poetry. The films presented in this selection go against the grain of the seminal film The Celluloid Closet (1981) by Vito Russo. They are inflammatory, stirring up debates, as was the case with the pioneering Anders als die Andern, by Richard Oswald. Such films, by feeding their contestations with powerful visual and sound contexts established their own critical histories (Jonathan Caouette), proposing liber- ated approaches to the genre, of desire and sexuality, leaning on the energy of ancient myths(Maria Klonaris, Sally Potter), across frontiers (the pacifist in Marble’s Ass by Želimir Žilnik), investigating in depth the representation of the nucleus of individuality (Chantal Akerman). Few of these films unravel the plastic, figurative and narrative forms which are purely cinematic (Constance Beeson, Yann Gonzalez). All such films create their own forms of energy which allow them to survive in a hostile environment.
“Dare to defeat the robot or the cop which capitalism has tried to make out of you. Learn again how to love, to be together, to make your life to bring the revolution by all means” (Tout, organ of Homosexual Front of Revolutionary Action, May 1971.)

-Nicole Brenez, Stéphane Gérard
Translation to English Maria Komninos