Monika Treut

Monika Treut is a German lesbian filmmaker and pioneer of queer and feminist cinema who studied literature and political science at Philipps-University Marburg, writing her doctoral thesis on cruelty in the work of the Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. In 1984 she founded Hyäne Filmproduktion in Hamburg with her then-partner, director Elfi Mikesch, with whom she co-directed her feature debut, Seduction: The Cruel Woman (1985), an exploration of sadomasochistic sex practices. She followed it with Virgin Machine (1988) and, after relationships formed with figures including Annie Sprinkle during extended stays in San Francisco and New York, My Father Is Coming (1991) and Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities (1999). Her work engaged with female desire, BDSM, gender transgression, and trans identity at a time when virtually no mainstream filmmaker was doing so, and she has taught and curated retrospectives of her work at American colleges since 1990.