General News

THE CIRCLE (DER KREIS) Screens Sunday at QFest St. Louis

By Tom Stockman | April 24, 2014

QFest St. Louis which begins this weekend, will screen the Swiss drama THE CIRCLE at 8:30pm Sunday April 27th.

QFest St. Louis, the annual gay and Lesbian Film Festival presented by Cinema St. Louis, kicks off this Sunday, April 27th. It runs through May 1^st and all films will be screened at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in The Loop, University City, MO)

QFest uses the art of contemporary gay cinema to spotlight the lives of LGBTQ people and celebrate queer culture. The 2014 event features an eclectic slate of contemporary LGBTQ-themed feature films, documentaries, and shorts. Tickets are now on sale for all shows.

THE CIRCLE screens at 8:30pm Sunday April 27th

Based on actual events, THE CIRCLE explores the fascinating universe of one of the first gay-liberation communities. Founded in the early 1940s, the group behind the magazine Der Kreis (The Circle) was the only gay organization to survive the Nazi regime and served as an early pioneer of European gay emancipation. Based in Zurich, the publication blossomed during the postwar years and annually hosted legendary, internationally renowned masked balls. In the film, timid, handsome young teacher Ernst Ostertag falls head over heels in love with transvestite singer Röbi Rapp and finds himself torn between his bourgeois existence and commitment to his homosexuality. Following a murder in the gay community, violent repression against gay people also endangers The Circle network. Enriched by impressive conversations with the real Ostertag and Rapp, the film depicts a decades-long love story.

THE CIRCLE is directed by Stefan Haupt and the screening is sponsored by Mark Utterback