Susana Helmayr, Ursula Puerrer, A. Hans Scheirl
“Imagine the film that J.G. Ballard might have made if he’d been born an Austrian dyke, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.” B. Ruby Rich
Step aside if DIY lesbian sci-fi doesn’t sound like your particular kink. Everyone else, step right up for some crocodile-chomping, fetish-boot-wearing, anarchistic good times in Flaming Ears (1992).
Unabashedly camp and delightfully ramshackle, Flaming Ears makes a merit of existing entirely on its own terms. Like the films of Rosa Von Prauheim, Ulrike Ottinger or John Waters, it feels like the work of a band of outsiders articulating the very particular pleasures of existing on the margins. Shot on 8mm film with gloriously inventive animated sequences, the film stars two of its co-directors Dietmar Schipek and Ursula Pürrer as cyberdykes on a mission. If you loved Born in Flames but wished it donned a flame-red PVC catsuit and tossed an explosive armadillo in your direction, this one’s for you.
Restoration and digitisation of Flaming Ears were carried out in 2020 by Kinothek Asta Nielsen e.V. within the scope of a project by Remake. Frankfurt Women’s Film Days in 2019. The goal of the restoration was to come as close as possible to the form the film took at the time of its premiere.
We’re delighted to welcome film programmer Jaye Bullen from Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest to introduce the in-person screening of Flaming Ears at BFI Southbank.
