Sticky Fingers Cinema: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

Sticky Fingers Publishing presents a monthly feminist queer cinema night at the Ivy House, Nunhead. Each evening will begin with two short films followed by a headline feature, with drinks, pizza and more available. Expect camp classics, cult favourites, feminist DIY fantasies, and much more. The next cinema night, 6th June, we will be screening Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) dir. John Cameron Mitchell!

“The queer punk-rock musical about Plato, the Berlin Wall, love, gender, fame and self-acceptance started first as a stage show before becoming a much-loved cult film with a fervent fandom of “Hedheads” that unwaveringly adore it.

The story centres on Hedwig, a singer in a punk-rock band from East Berlin now living in Kansas following botched gender reassignment surgery that left them with an “angry inch”. Hedwig has their heart broken twice, first by the GI who coerced them into the operation to allow them to marry and emigrate, and then by Tommy Gnosis, who fell in love with Hedwig but then stole their songs and used them to become the rock star Hedwig always wanted to be. It’s a tale that many have a deep connection to, not just because it’s hilarious, heart-breaking and has a phenomenal, timelessly cool, soundtrack but also because it taps into the fundamental question of identity and how it’s shaped by the relationships we have.”