Flaming Ears

(Ursula Pürrer, Angela Hans Scheirl, and Dietmar Schipek, 1992, Austria, 90 minutes)

Shot on 8mm film with a distinctive queer/camp/kitsch aesthetic familiar to fans of midcentury American avant-garde filmmaking (the Kuchar brothers, Jack Smith, Kenneth Anger, Andy Warhol), the Austrian sci-fi punk epic Flaming Ears is a real find. Newly restored, Flaming Ears follows a trio of lesbians in 2700 AD in the dystopian city of Asche. Our heroines include comic book artist Spy, oversexed pyromaniac Volley, and Volley’s lover Nun, who is vinyl-clad and toting a reptile fetish. A triangle of love and revenge inevitably ensues, all set into motion when Volley burns down Spy’s printing presses.

In German with English subtitles.