Albrecht Becker (born 1906) with a self-portrait from the 50s, at his home in Hamburg. After serving a three-year prison term for homosexuality, Becker joined the German Army.

From the two-time Academy Award-winning filmmakers of such gay classics as The Times of Harvey Milk, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt and The Celluloid Closet, comes a haunting and important new work, sure to be one of the films to beat this year. 

Albrecht Becker (left), age 20, with friends at the beach in Venice, Italy, 1926

Fresh from its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and winner there of the Documentary Jury Prize for Directing, Paragraph 175, narrated by actor Rupert Everett, tells the chilling and emotional story of gays in the Holocaust.  It is the story behind the pink triangle, which many do not know was originally the badge homosexual prisoners were forced to wear in Nazi Germany.  

(left to right) Heinz Dormer on a camping trip in 1931 with friend Werner Henneberg, who died in a concentration camp

The film gracefully combines archival footage with interviews with the handful of elderly men, and one woman, still living and able to bear witness to this difficult history.  The voices range from that of Gad Beck, gay Jewish resistance fighter, to Heinz D–rmer, a Hitler youth leader who, because of his homosexuality, is eventually interned in a concentration camp, to Albrecht Becker, who, after three years in prison, enlists in the German army.  This is a film full of revelations, of compromises and defeats, of heroism and survival.

directors Rob Epstien (left) and Jeffrey Friedman (right)

Director Rob Epstein will attend the screening and discuss his work with the audience.

7:00 PM Screening only at the Colony Theater $10
Film plus post-screening party at the Delano at 11:00 PM $20

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