Müller, Katharina2022-03-282022-03-282022https://film-history.org/issues/text/secret-publicshttps://mediarep.org/handle/doc/19083As a history of subcultures, queer history is always also a history of spaces, whether analogue or virtual, in which alternative ways of living are made possible. In Austria, this history unfolded within one of the most stubbornly hostile legal environments for queer people anywhere in (Western) Europe. Drawing on the Austrian Film Museum’s “Rainbow Films” collection (working title), this article explores the ephemeral audiovisual self-documentation of the LGBTIQ+ community in or with links to Austria. It focuses primarily on noncommercial films/videos produced outside formal artistic contexts: home movies, activist films, campaign videos, coming-out films, club films, etc., and conceives of these films and videos not as “private films” but as ephemeral spaces of a “secret” but nonetheless real public that stands opposed to the omnipresent privatization of existence.engÖstereichisches FilmmuseumqueerLGBTIQ+self-documentationAustriaVienna79110.25969/mediarep/180992627-5848