Somewhere in-between the Sacred Band of Thebes’ victory over the Spartans and the premiere of Bruce LaBruce’s first gay zombie film at the Berlinale, was the apex of Western homosexuality. Plato’s Symposium may have inspired an army but it’s been nothing but trouble for homosexuals since the 4th Century BC. And yet, if there’s hope, it’s probably with Bruce LaBruce. The writer and filmmaker first appeared on the art and independent film scenes with his hyperbolic meditations on psycho-sexual theory and post-Marxist slogans, blending left-wing terrorism with fellatio, politics with hardcore porn. The newest addition to his oeuvre is Otto; or, Up With Dead People, in which he follows an “undead” twink around Berlin as he chows on roadkill and frolics with other zombies. Like all of LaBruce’s films, Otto is an overtly political film; he remains staunchly committed to the idea that homosexuality is revolutionary - and that our hetero-dominant culture has a long way to go before same-sex love has a place again in, say, military tactics. The underground hero spoke to East Village Boys recently about making a horror film, gay New York and why Berlin may be the next East Village.

Kate Sennert: Before we start plugging your new film, I wanted to ask you about Berlin, where it was shot. What is your favorite memory from that city?

Bruce LaBruce: I’ve spent so much time in Berlin that it’s become like a home away from home. I first went there when the wall was coming down, so I got to experience the city before it was integrated. It was fun in those days to go and show our films in the former East Berlin which was really hungry for experimental and gay work. But I really fell in love with the city when I shot Otto; or, Up with Dead People there. We shot all over the city so I got to know it better than ever before. It was really amazing to shoot in an old, huge cemetery that was very dark and Gothic, and they allowed us to dig a grave and bury Otto in it. We buried Jey Crisfar, who plays Otto, on his 19th birthday. We put too much earth on his chest the first take and he panicked and we had to quickly pull him out of the grave. He was crying so I had to give him a big hug. That was memorable. Another favorite memory would have to be when we had an event at Schwuz, this really old gay club, where Susanne Sachsse, who plays Gudrun in my movie The Raspberry Reich, read from the letters of Gudrun Ensslin which had just been published by her brother, Gottfried Ensslin. They were the letters that she wrote to her brother while she was incarcerated in Stammheim prison. Gottfried is a gay activist and he was there on the stage with us, so it was really quite something. Apparently it was quite scandalous.

KS: Germany was one of the first countries to allow gay marriage. What do you think is different about that culture’s relationship to sexual freedom versus America’s?

BLB: Well I’m from Canada and we have gay marriage too. In fact, I am married, to a Cuban named Antonio. He’s a Santeria priest. America is really falling behind in many ways. The resurgence of the right wing and of Christian fundamentalism has been a real setback for gay and feminist issues. America is actually the only western democracy that attempts to keep out people with HIV, for example. They can’t even have any international HIV-AIDS conferences in the US because of these policies. It’s really quite appalling. Berlin is exceptional though in terms of its sexual openness and freedom. Sometimes it feels like you’re back in the days of the Weimar Republic.

KS: When RAF’s Brigitte Mohnhaupt was released from prison last year, some press described her as the “most evil woman in Germany.” I know you made some artwork on the subject of RAF. Can you tell me a bit about it, and about your romanticism with militant revolutionaries in general?

BLB: It’s difficult not to romanticize left wing militant movements and groups, especially those from the late 60s and early 70s. Style was very important to groups like the RAF and the SLA and the Black Panthers, as it was later to the punk movement, and their politics were often interpreted through style. Just look at the transformation of Patty Hearst after she was abducted by the SLA. So the combination of a militant, urban guerilla style and an intense political idealism was quite appealing. Also if you look at the manifestos of these groups, the changes they were trying to bring about were very rational and democratic. They were against the rise of corporate power and its control of the media; they favored the rights of the working class and challenged the hegemony of the ruling classes; they agitated for equal rights regardless of race or class or gender. The only problem is that when they started blowing up buildings and killing people, their own moral high ground became totally discredited. My movie The Raspberry Reich is about how signifiers of radicalism have been co-opted and made impotent by pop culture and fashion. It’s really rather sad.

KS: Since we’re chatting under the auspices of East Village Boys, I wanted to ask you about one EV boy in particular: artist Terrence Koh. When did you first meet him? Under what circumstances?

BLB: I’ve known Terence Koh for a decade or so, back when he was Asianpunkboy on the internet. He went to Emily Carr art college in Vancouver, and he came to see a show I was part of there called Red 8. I was doing this performance in which I had a cracked-out hustler draped in an American flag and I was throwing buckets of blood on him and trying to get people to give him a blow job. The problem was that I got the recipe wrong for the blood so it was too syrupy and the hustler couldn’t get a hard on because he was on crack. So when someone was trying to give him a blow job he slipped and fell on his tailbone. It was very messy, but Terence seemed to like it. Later I introduced him to my gallerist Javier Peres at a show I had when Javier still had his gallery in San Francisco. The rest is art history, I suppose.

KS: What’s your favorite memory of the East Village? What’s your impression of the New York gay scene in general?

BLB: Well I hate New York now, and try to avoid it as much as possible. But in the 80s and 90s I used to love it and spent as much time there as I could, often three months of the year. Back then the East Village was still fun and a bit dodgy and not full of boring celubutards and vacuous rich people. I used to go to all the fun East Village back room bars like the Tunnel Bar and The Bar and Wonder Bar and Dick’s Bar and then later the great I.C. Guys. It only lasted a couple of years, but I.C. Guys, which was right beside Cherry Tavern on East 6th Street, was quite special. It was a tiny box of a bar that only served beer and wine, so you had to go next door to Cherry to get your hard liquor, which we did. I.C. Guys had only room for about four people at the tiny bar, and you could really only comfortably fit about twenty people inside. I once had a party there, after the premier of my movie Skin Flick, with about sixty people. You had to be body-surfed over the crowd to order a drink or to get to the tiny washroom. Scrawny blond boys used to pull out a milk crate and do a striptease on top of it. It was so much fun. I saw Jake Spears of Scissor Sisters dance there once or twice. My friend the writer Travis Jeppesen used to work there. He lives in Berlin now.

KS: Just this morning, while I was watching the trailer for Otto online, my flatmate shuffled over to my laptop and made me watch I’m Fucking Ben Affleck, a spoof bit Jimmy Kimmel did with Ben Affleck
in response to Sarah Silverman’s I’m Fucking Matt Damon. It occurred to me that Hollywood has finally embraced homosexuality. Is there such a thing as counter-culture anymore? What’s so exciting about being gay in 2008?

BLB: Well I guess you could say Hollywood has embraced homosexuality if you ignore the fact that movie stars would still rather commit suicide than admit publically that they’re gay or bisexual. Sarah Silverman embraces homosexuality in the same way that she embraces dog poop: it’s kind of gross, but I’ll touch it if I have to. In case you haven’t noticed, there has been a resurgence of anti-gay violence in America. Homophobia in hip hop has become not only common, but it’s considered cool. It’s actually quite nauseating. Suicide rates for gay teens still soar above those of straight kids. Beyond that, as long as you’re well behaved and not too femme (if you’re a guy) or butch (if you’re a girl) and you don’t flaunt it, it’s ok to be gay. Being gay is as exciting as you want to make it.

KS: Tell me about zombies, the Fleischerei and the Badeschiff. Where did the idea for Otto; or, Up with Dead People come from? Why did you shoot it in Berlin?

BLB: I shot Otto in Berlin because it has lots of Gothic locations, like beautiful old cemeteries and churches. I also like the scale of the buildings, with large doorways and staircases. I wanted Otto to be dwarfed by the city and seem isolated. We also had access to a lot of locations that anywhere else would be ridiculously expensive, but in Berlin they are cheap or even free - locations like the Badeschiff and the abandoned amusement park and the meat-processing plant. The idea for the movie came from me running into a number of kids in their late teens and early twenties who told me they felt dead or dead inside. I attributed it to the machinations of advanced capitalism, a system which deems property more valuable than human life.

KS: Have you made the first gay zombie film in history - or are there others?

BLB: There may be others, but Otto is the first melancholy gay zombie movie, I wager. And perhaps the first one with a gut-fucking scene.

KS: Who would you most like to cast in one of your films and why?

BLB: I’m really annoyed by celebrities and celebrity culture these days, so I’m not so keen about working with famous actors. I would rather cast my mother in one of my films.

KS: Last words?

BLB: Up with dead people!

For more unadulterated Bruce LaBruce, visit his blog.