Hans Scheirl, also known as Angela Scheirl, Hans Angela Scheirl or Ashley Hans Sheirl, is a transgender artist and filmmaker from Salzburg, Austria. Scheirl first began his transition at the age of 40 with testosterone shots. He currently identifies as "boy, drag-king, transvestite, transgender... insect." He has also performed in some experimental groups including the music group "8 oder 9" in Vienna in 1978. Scheirl's films use "the cinematic apparatus as a technology for perverting representation". He outlines his work as "cyber-cinema for the trans-X patriarchal fin-de-millenium."
In 1979 Scheirl directed 52 super-8 films and two short films in 1986. He also directed two short 16mm films in 1988. In 1991 he co-directed, co-edited, and performed in Flaming Ears, and directed Dandy Dust. Scheirl is known to use film as a medium to experiment with gender and identity, often through montage, and relates some of his film to the "cyborg" identity. He has also stated that his intention with film is to create a new medium of communication through film. Scheirl had taken part in numerous films including Venus Boyz by Gabriel Baur, Pansexual Public Porn by Del laGrace Volcano, and the Making of Dandy Dust by Tina Keane.
''Flaming Ears'' (1991)
Also known as Rote Ohren fetzen durch Asche, Flaming Ears is an 83-minute post-apocalyptic feature film directed by A. Hans Scheirl, Ursula Pürrer, and Dietmar Schipek. The film focuses on three women, Spy, Volley, and Nun in the city of Asche in the year 2700 and draws on themes of romantics and lesbianism.
''Dandy Dust'' (1998)
Dandy Dust is a 94-minute experimental sci-fi feature film directed, written, and produced by Scheirl. The film features a gender fluid cyborg character that time travels to discovers parts of past self-consciousness. This film features a fragmented plot, nudity, stop motion animation, gritty visuals, and themes of sex and sexuality through the use of bodily fluids and prosthetic reproductive organs. Characters in the film include Dandy Dust, Super Mother Cyniborg XVII Duchess of Loft & Spire, Sir Sidore, and Spider Cunt Boy.
In 2012, Scheirl received the "Kunstpreis der Stadt Wien" and the "Jane Bowles Serious Elegance CHEAPy Underground Über Alles for Sci-fi DIY Aesthetic Innovation and Gender Creative Visionary Art" awards.
