
Directing
Monika Treut
Born
1954-04-06 (72)
Place of birth
Mönchengladbach, Germany
Known for
Directing
Credits
51 titles
Monika Treut (1954, Mönchengladbach, Germany) is an award-winning director and writer of documentaries and features. She has been teaching film at various universities in the U.S. and served on juries at international film festivals like Toronto (TIFF), Amsterdam (IDFA), and many others. At the Berlin Film Festival 2017, she was awarded the Special Teddy for her lifetime achievement.
Known for
5.5Wanda, a dominatrix who runs an S&M gallery on the Hamburg waterfront, must choose between her lesbian lover and an American trainee.
Seduction: The Cruel Woman
1986
5.3From feminist director and provocateur Monika Treut comes this eclectic collection of four short documentaries profiling unconventional women. One has Camille Paglia explaining her ways of thinking. One has Annie Sprinkle explaining her approach to performance art, which includes inviting audience members to view her cervix with a speculum. One interview investigates a professional woman's preoccupation with sadomasochism. The fourth documents the life adjustments of an F2M (female-to-male) sex change who looks like a dangerous biker, with slick black hair, a matching motorcycle jacket, and tattoos.
Female Misbehavior
1992
NRFrom the starting point of her admiration for the pioneering Ukrainian filmmaker Kira Muratova (1934-2018), the director poses a question: is cinema made by women really tougher, more violent? Seeking answers, she talks to great contemporary filmmakers like Catherine Breillat, Virginie Despentes, Alice Diop, Céline Sciamma, Ana Lily Amirpour, and Monika Treut, among others. It becomes obvious that the cinema screen is a space for the projection of real social problems and power relations.
No Mercy
2026
5.0Vicky, an out-of-work actress, struggling waitress and lesbian has her whole life thrown into turmoil when her father comes from Germany to visit. The main problem is that Vicky has told him she is a successful actress and happily married. She enlists the help of a gay friend to play her husband. Using a large range of characters—gay, lesbian, straight, transsexuals—the film creates a funny and touching view of family dynamics and sexuality.
My Father Is Coming
1991
4.0The sexual fantasies of women are explored by four female directors.
Erotique
1994
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Porn Culture
2019
Film credits
2020s · 4 titles
NRFrom the starting point of her admiration for the pioneering Ukrainian filmmaker Kira Muratova (1934-2018), the director poses a question: is cinema made by women really tougher, more violent? Seeking answers, she talks to great contemporary filmmakers like Catherine Breillat, Virginie Despentes, Alice Diop, Céline Sciamma, Ana Lily Amirpour, and Monika Treut, among others. It becomes obvious that the cinema screen is a space for the projection of real social problems and power relations.
No Mercy
2026
8.020 years after Gendernauts, Monika Treut seeks out the pioneers of the transgender movement back then to find out how their lives and their activism have evolved, how they have grown into their identities and how their energy continues to have an impact today.
Genderation
2021
NRThe film explores the life and career of the Hamburg-born musician, whose creative work began in the West German post-punk scene of the 1980s.
Mona Mur in Conversation
2025
1.0A queer anthology that explores sexuality, intimacy, and identity across age groups. Conceived as a collaborative project, the film brings together filmmakers from different generations, each directing a short segment portraying encounters between younger and older men. Through these stories, the film examines how attitudes toward desire, relationships, and queer identity shift over time. Moments of curiosity, misunderstanding, attraction, and vulnerability reveal both the gaps and the connections between generations shaped by different social climates. By juxtaposing perspectives formed in eras of repression with those emerging in more open contexts, the film reflects on how LGBTQ+ experiences evolve while shared needs for intimacy, recognition, and connection remain constant. The result is a provocative and intimate mosaic about age, memory, and the changing landscape of queer life.
Fucking Different Generations
2026
2010s · 2 titles
NRA documentary about the International Queer Film Festival Hamburg that celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2014. The filmmakers have filmed, interviewed, gleaned the archives, watched hours of footage and edited reams of material into a small masterpiece. With its gorgeous shots and sublime soundtrack, the documentary entertainingly brings across both the unique atmosphere and 25-year history, and above all, illuminates the complex mesh that both forms and carries the festival. On another note, the film tries to detect the ways a queer film festival like this has functioned as a platform for unheard voices - and continues to do so in the present. For some people, its sole existence has been a life changing momentum.
Acting Out: 25 Years of Queer Film & Community in Hamburg
2014
NRMasculinity/Femininity is an experimental film project interrogating normative notions of gender, sexuality and performance. Shot primarily on Super 8, the project merges academic and creative critique -- a document of gender de-construction rather than a documentary about gender construction.
Masculinity/Femininity
2015
1990s · 4 titles
6.5Monika Treut explores the worlds and thoughts of several female to male transgendered individuals. As with Treuts first film, Jungfrauenmaschine, Gendernauts, enters a minority sector of San Fransisco culture. The characters in this film have a lot to complain about, and they do. They are people whose physical appearance (female) does not match their inner sexual identity (male). The subject is pinpointed in the film independant of sexual orientation. Leave your conservative hats at the door, this is going to need your special attention.
Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities
1999
8.0A docudrama about the eventful life of Domenica Niehoff, a high-class prostitute from Hamburg who later became a social worker: Domenica’s mother leaves Italy and her abusive husband, makes her way to Germany with her two children, but ends up in prison, and Domenica and her brother are placed in an orphanage, where they are raised by nuns. At 17, Domenica meets the older, equally violent brothel owner Joseph Rothenberg, who for ten years...
Domenica. Alle kommen, keiner war da
1994
Can there be pornography for women? In search of an answer, Esther Gronenborn stumbles through Germany's porn scene like Alice in Wonderland and interviews Beate Uhse, activist Monika Treut from the PorNo movement, and other minor and major figures from the porn industry.
I Wonder in Pornoland
1991
6.5From Go Fish to Paris is Burning to The Watermelon Woman, this festival favorite goes behind the scenes to reveal seven successful lesbian directors. These talented movie-makers enlighten and entertain as they explore their sexual identity, growing up gay, inspirations and techniques, Hollywood vs. Indie, and of course, love and sex, onscreen and off. The conversations are intimate, the topics unlimited, and the clips from their work enthralling! Featuring Cheryl Dunye, Rose Troche, Jennie Livingston, Monika Treut, Maria Maggenti, Su Friedrich and Heather MacDonald.
Lavender Limelight
1998
Series credits
Behind the camera
5.5Wanda, a dominatrix who runs an S&M gallery on the Hamburg waterfront, must choose between her lesbian lover and an American trainee.
Seduction: The Cruel Woman
1986
5.5Wanda, a dominatrix who runs an S&M gallery on the Hamburg waterfront, must choose between her lesbian lover and an American trainee.
Seduction: The Cruel Woman
1986
5.5Wanda, a dominatrix who runs an S&M gallery on the Hamburg waterfront, must choose between her lesbian lover and an American trainee.
Seduction: The Cruel Woman
1986
5.3From feminist director and provocateur Monika Treut comes this eclectic collection of four short documentaries profiling unconventional women. One has Camille Paglia explaining her ways of thinking. One has Annie Sprinkle explaining her approach to performance art, which includes inviting audience members to view her cervix with a speculum. One interview investigates a professional woman's preoccupation with sadomasochism. The fourth documents the life adjustments of an F2M (female-to-male) sex change who looks like a dangerous biker, with slick black hair, a matching motorcycle jacket, and tattoos.
Female Misbehavior
1992
5.3From feminist director and provocateur Monika Treut comes this eclectic collection of four short documentaries profiling unconventional women. One has Camille Paglia explaining her ways of thinking. One has Annie Sprinkle explaining her approach to performance art, which includes inviting audience members to view her cervix with a speculum. One interview investigates a professional woman's preoccupation with sadomasochism. The fourth documents the life adjustments of an F2M (female-to-male) sex change who looks like a dangerous biker, with slick black hair, a matching motorcycle jacket, and tattoos.
Female Misbehavior
1992
5.3From feminist director and provocateur Monika Treut comes this eclectic collection of four short documentaries profiling unconventional women. One has Camille Paglia explaining her ways of thinking. One has Annie Sprinkle explaining her approach to performance art, which includes inviting audience members to view her cervix with a speculum. One interview investigates a professional woman's preoccupation with sadomasochism. The fourth documents the life adjustments of an F2M (female-to-male) sex change who looks like a dangerous biker, with slick black hair, a matching motorcycle jacket, and tattoos.
Female Misbehavior
1992
5.0Vicky, an out-of-work actress, struggling waitress and lesbian has her whole life thrown into turmoil when her father comes from Germany to visit. The main problem is that Vicky has told him she is a successful actress and happily married. She enlists the help of a gay friend to play her husband. Using a large range of characters—gay, lesbian, straight, transsexuals—the film creates a funny and touching view of family dynamics and sexuality.
My Father Is Coming
1991
5.0Vicky, an out-of-work actress, struggling waitress and lesbian has her whole life thrown into turmoil when her father comes from Germany to visit. The main problem is that Vicky has told him she is a successful actress and happily married. She enlists the help of a gay friend to play her husband. Using a large range of characters—gay, lesbian, straight, transsexuals—the film creates a funny and touching view of family dynamics and sexuality.
My Father Is Coming
1991
5.0Vicky, an out-of-work actress, struggling waitress and lesbian has her whole life thrown into turmoil when her father comes from Germany to visit. The main problem is that Vicky has told him she is a successful actress and happily married. She enlists the help of a gay friend to play her husband. Using a large range of characters—gay, lesbian, straight, transsexuals—the film creates a funny and touching view of family dynamics and sexuality.
My Father Is Coming
1991
4.0The sexual fantasies of women are explored by four female directors.
Erotique
1994
4.0The sexual fantasies of women are explored by four female directors.
Erotique
1994
4.0The sexual fantasies of women are explored by four female directors.
Erotique
1994
NRA confrontation with Camille Paglia, the infamous author.
Dr. Paglia
1992
4.1A woman who is mourning the love of her life falls into a relationship with a mysterious stranger.
Ghosted
2009
4.1A woman who is mourning the love of her life falls into a relationship with a mysterious stranger.
Ghosted
2009
8.020 years after Gendernauts, Monika Treut seeks out the pioneers of the transgender movement back then to find out how their lives and their activism have evolved, how they have grown into their identities and how their energy continues to have an impact today.
Genderation
2021
6.5Monika Treut explores the worlds and thoughts of several female to male transgendered individuals. As with Treuts first film, Jungfrauenmaschine, Gendernauts, enters a minority sector of San Fransisco culture. The characters in this film have a lot to complain about, and they do. They are people whose physical appearance (female) does not match their inner sexual identity (male). The subject is pinpointed in the film independant of sexual orientation. Leave your conservative hats at the door, this is going to need your special attention.
Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities
1999
6.5Monika Treut explores the worlds and thoughts of several female to male transgendered individuals. As with Treuts first film, Jungfrauenmaschine, Gendernauts, enters a minority sector of San Fransisco culture. The characters in this film have a lot to complain about, and they do. They are people whose physical appearance (female) does not match their inner sexual identity (male). The subject is pinpointed in the film independant of sexual orientation. Leave your conservative hats at the door, this is going to need your special attention.
Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities
1999
6.5Monika Treut explores the worlds and thoughts of several female to male transgendered individuals. As with Treuts first film, Jungfrauenmaschine, Gendernauts, enters a minority sector of San Fransisco culture. The characters in this film have a lot to complain about, and they do. They are people whose physical appearance (female) does not match their inner sexual identity (male). The subject is pinpointed in the film independant of sexual orientation. Leave your conservative hats at the door, this is going to need your special attention.
Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities
1999
4.8DIDN'T DO IT FOR LOVE is a documentary portrait of Eva Norvind, a.k.a. Mistress Ava Taurel, born Eva Johanne Chegodaieva Sakonskaya in Trondheim, Norway. The film follows Eva's many careers, from her time as a showgirl in Paris to becoming Mexico's Marilyn Monroe in the 1960s to establishing herself as New York's most famous dominatrix in the 1980s. Using clips from Norvind's Mexican films, stills from various periods, and interviews with friends, partners and family, Treut's documentary traces Eva's search for the wellspring of her obsessive and dark sexuality.
Didn't Do It For Love
1998
4.8DIDN'T DO IT FOR LOVE is a documentary portrait of Eva Norvind, a.k.a. Mistress Ava Taurel, born Eva Johanne Chegodaieva Sakonskaya in Trondheim, Norway. The film follows Eva's many careers, from her time as a showgirl in Paris to becoming Mexico's Marilyn Monroe in the 1960s to establishing herself as New York's most famous dominatrix in the 1980s. Using clips from Norvind's Mexican films, stills from various periods, and interviews with friends, partners and family, Treut's documentary traces Eva's search for the wellspring of her obsessive and dark sexuality.
Didn't Do It For Love
1998
5.8Despite its suggestive title, this multi-part Danish omnibus film is not a work of exploitation. Instead, it presents 20 different short films (back-to-back) on the general theme of Danish women, directed by filmmakers including Krzysztof Zanussi, Monika Treut, Gustav Hamos, David Blair, Vibeke Vogel, Dusan Makavejev, Morten Skallerud and Lars Norgaard. Some dramatic vignettes mix with other comedic ones, but all are offbeat and experimental. The picture includes one animated sequence (by Norgaard).
Danish Girls Show Everything
1996
5.8Alex is 16, a misfit, a drop-out, a failure. She uses drugs; she cuts herself. She has been sent by her despairing adoptive mother to a farm in northern Germany. At first, Alex hates this remote place and the demanding job of looking after the horses. But under the tutelage of Nina, a 30-something taking a break from city life and her partner, Christine, Alex gradually comes to form a bond with the animals in her charge. Then Kathy arrives at the farm to take a holiday, bringing her own, beautiful horse with her. Alex takes an instant dislike to this privileged newcomer. Slowly, though, the barriers between the two are broken down and Kathy finds herself smitten by the streetwise and energetic Alex. The pair starts horsing around, larking about on the mudflats, until one weekend, when they’re alone at the farm, things spiral out of control.
Of Girls and Horses
2014
5.8Alex is 16, a misfit, a drop-out, a failure. She uses drugs; she cuts herself. She has been sent by her despairing adoptive mother to a farm in northern Germany. At first, Alex hates this remote place and the demanding job of looking after the horses. But under the tutelage of Nina, a 30-something taking a break from city life and her partner, Christine, Alex gradually comes to form a bond with the animals in her charge. Then Kathy arrives at the farm to take a holiday, bringing her own, beautiful horse with her. Alex takes an instant dislike to this privileged newcomer. Slowly, though, the barriers between the two are broken down and Kathy finds herself smitten by the streetwise and energetic Alex. The pair starts horsing around, larking about on the mudflats, until one weekend, when they’re alone at the farm, things spiral out of control.
Of Girls and Horses
2014
1.0A queer anthology that explores sexuality, intimacy, and identity across age groups. Conceived as a collaborative project, the film brings together filmmakers from different generations, each directing a short segment portraying encounters between younger and older men. Through these stories, the film examines how attitudes toward desire, relationships, and queer identity shift over time. Moments of curiosity, misunderstanding, attraction, and vulnerability reveal both the gaps and the connections between generations shaped by different social climates. By juxtaposing perspectives formed in eras of repression with those emerging in more open contexts, the film reflects on how LGBTQ+ experiences evolve while shared needs for intimacy, recognition, and connection remain constant. The result is a provocative and intimate mosaic about age, memory, and the changing landscape of queer life.
Fucking Different Generations
2026
The filmmaker Monika Treut documents in this very personal film her travels, which she undertook between 1999 and 2002. She attended film festivals in metropolises on all continents, from San Francisco to Jerusalem, from Rio de Janeiro to Paris and Jerusalem, where she tried to capture the social and political peculiarities of the respective country.
Axensprung
2003
6.0Pioneering trans writer Max Wolf Valerio talks about his life and experience of transition in this groundbreaking documentary short, one of the very first portraits of a trans man on film, directed and produced by noted filmmaker Monika Treut.
Max
1992
6.0Pioneering trans writer Max Wolf Valerio talks about his life and experience of transition in this groundbreaking documentary short, one of the very first portraits of a trans man on film, directed and produced by noted filmmaker Monika Treut.
Max
1992
4.7A German woman travels to San Francisco to find her mother, but winds up distracted by the sexually flamboyant culture of the city.
Virgin Machine
1989
4.7A German woman travels to San Francisco to find her mother, but winds up distracted by the sexually flamboyant culture of the city.
Virgin Machine
1989
4.7A German woman travels to San Francisco to find her mother, but winds up distracted by the sexually flamboyant culture of the city.
Virgin Machine
1989
NRYi-Chun loves dancing. She attends ballet classes at her high school, with a lot of discipline, even if the exercises are painful. "Made in Taiwan" is a sensitive portrait of a 17-year-old Taiwanese girl who shares her very personal worries and joys with us. The young woman loves to eat, but every intake of food is watched suspiciously by her family; the slightest weight gain is a hindrance to her dancing career. Her voice-over tells of her school day, which is subject to a strict dramaturgy: the alarm clock rings at 5:45 am, she is often not home until 7 pm, then she does her homework, takes a shower and goes to bed - she has neither time nor energy for a boyfriend. The annual school trip to the seaside is the perfect escape from the routine: karaoke on the bus, sweets and a fairground make for a good atmosphere. Monika Treut observes the youthful hustle and bustle without judging it, always keeping a careful eye on her protagonist's face.
Made in Taiwan
2005
NRYi-Chun loves dancing. She attends ballet classes at her high school, with a lot of discipline, even if the exercises are painful. "Made in Taiwan" is a sensitive portrait of a 17-year-old Taiwanese girl who shares her very personal worries and joys with us. The young woman loves to eat, but every intake of food is watched suspiciously by her family; the slightest weight gain is a hindrance to her dancing career. Her voice-over tells of her school day, which is subject to a strict dramaturgy: the alarm clock rings at 5:45 am, she is often not home until 7 pm, then she does her homework, takes a shower and goes to bed - she has neither time nor energy for a boyfriend. The annual school trip to the seaside is the perfect escape from the routine: karaoke on the bus, sweets and a fairground make for a good atmosphere. Monika Treut observes the youthful hustle and bustle without judging it, always keeping a careful eye on her protagonist's face.
Made in Taiwan
2005
NRYi-Chun loves dancing. She attends ballet classes at her high school, with a lot of discipline, even if the exercises are painful. "Made in Taiwan" is a sensitive portrait of a 17-year-old Taiwanese girl who shares her very personal worries and joys with us. The young woman loves to eat, but every intake of food is watched suspiciously by her family; the slightest weight gain is a hindrance to her dancing career. Her voice-over tells of her school day, which is subject to a strict dramaturgy: the alarm clock rings at 5:45 am, she is often not home until 7 pm, then she does her homework, takes a shower and goes to bed - she has neither time nor energy for a boyfriend. The annual school trip to the seaside is the perfect escape from the routine: karaoke on the bus, sweets and a fairground make for a good atmosphere. Monika Treut observes the youthful hustle and bustle without judging it, always keeping a careful eye on her protagonist's face.
Made in Taiwan
2005
NRNowhere else does the experimental kitchen of digital democracy simmer as intensely as in the geopolitically threatened island republic of Taiwan. The "recipes" for these menus were created by activist students from the open-source community. Visionary Digital Minister Audrey Tang is spreading the concept internationally. At the heart of the film, however, are the creative cooks of the LGBTQI+ community and the emerging environmental movement.
Cooking Up Democracy
2026
NRNowhere else does the experimental kitchen of digital democracy simmer as intensely as in the geopolitically threatened island republic of Taiwan. The "recipes" for these menus were created by activist students from the open-source community. Visionary Digital Minister Audrey Tang is spreading the concept internationally. At the heart of the film, however, are the creative cooks of the LGBTQI+ community and the emerging environmental movement.
Cooking Up Democracy
2026
NRAgainst the backdrop of Taiwan's turbulent presidential elections in 2004, TIGERWOMEN GROW WINGS portrays three women of different generations. Noted opera singer Hsieh Yueh-hsia, internationally renowned writer Li Ang, and 23-year-old film director Chen Yin-jung are featured in this documentary, which focuses on the changes taking place in the lives of women in Taiwan's youthful democracy.
Tigerwomen Grow Wings
2005
NRThe late German film, theatre and opera director Schroeter is a self-proclaimed dinosaur from another age when people dreamed of ultimate freedom in film". Filmmaker Treut visits him on the set of his feature "DEUX" in Paris, and in Düsseldorf during the production of the opera "Norma". World premiere: FCMM October 2003. Screened at International Documentary Filmfestival Thessaloniki March 2004. Currently on the international filmfest circuit.
Begegnung mit Werner Schroeter
2003
4.7The world according to Annie Sprinkle, renowned porn star and performance artist.
Annie
1989
4.7The world according to Annie Sprinkle, renowned porn star and performance artist.
Annie
1989
