Tally Brown, New York

In this documentary, Rosa von Praunheim takes the audience on a voyage into the New York underground scene of the 1970s, where singer Tally Brown was a star, interpreting songs by David Bowie, Mick Jagger, and Kurt Weill with melancholy fervor. Her audiences and friends included icons of the transgender scene like Holly Woodlawn and Divine. The film uses both intimate close-ups of Brown, whose critics called her “fat and ugly,” and traveling shots through the New York dusk, with its porn shops, snack bars, businesspeople, and society’s marginalized. After its premiere in the city, the Village Voice called it one of the best documentaries ever made about New York.