I'm afraid this documentary about Nelly Mousset-Vos and Nadine Hwang may be geolocked for some, which is unfortunate because it's a moving watch.
We know why. Because they were women, in love.
Nelly & Nadine follows the granddaughter of Nelly Mousset-Vos, an opera singer born in 1906 who was a member of the resistance army for which she was imprisoned for 2 years in concentration camps, going through Mousset-Vos' effects and discovering/unearthing that her grandmother loved and lived with Nadine Hwang, a Chinese-Belgian daughter of a diplomat, whom Mousset-Vos met in the concentration camp at Ravensbrück.
Mousset-Vos left behind journal accounts of her experience in the camps, and photos and film of her life with Hwang in Caracas, Venezuela.
This was the moment I understood Hwang moved in the gayest of circles possible.
We hear Mousset-Vos's own words, the concentration camp portions heartbreaking to listen to, and see the documentation of their lives and life together. It's stunning and tender. Much of the film that exists was recorded by Nadine behind the camera.
The documentary tracks the present as much as the past and coming to recontextualize and understand the homosexual reality these women and their friends and peers lived--the love that dare not speak its name, truly, in that generation--and how this newfound knowledge and these women's resilience pay forward to inspiring and appreciating the greater visibility and acceptance/tolerance of today.
They were "cousins." They were "roommates."
Highly recommend if you have an available 90 minutes.
From Nadine Hwang's wikipedia entry:
Nadine Hwang, or Nadine Huong (Chinese 黃訥亭); (March 3, 1902 – 1972) was one of the first Chinese female pilots and served in the Chinese Air Force as an honorary colonel. She was at one point in a relationship with Natalie Clifford Barney and survived deportation to the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
Nadine Hwang was born in Madrid, to a Belgian mother, Juliette Brouta-Gilliard, and a Chinese father, Lühe Hwang. Both her parents were Catholics. Hwang was baptised in June 1902 in Madrid, in the parish church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar. Her father, who came from an influential Chinese family, was a diplomat and high official. In 1904 he was briefly transferred to Havana, where in 1905 Hwang's sister Marcela (later known as Marcela de Juan) was born. A few months later, the whole family returned to Madrid, where Hwang's father had been appointed head of the Chinese delegation.
Nelly Mousset-Vos
On Christmas Eve 1944, Nelly Mousset-Vos was asked to sing Christmas carols in the barracks of French prisoners. Hwang asked her to sing a song from Madame Butterfly, and they quickly got close and became a couple. They were separated in March 1945, when Nelly Mousset-Vos was deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp. In April 1945, shortly before the liberation of the camp, Hwang and the Krauszes, along with thousands of other prisoners, were evacuated to Sweden on Red Cross White Buses. Their arrival in Malmö on April 28 was documented by Swedish news photographers.
In 1945, Nadine Hwang moved to Brussels and began living with Nelly Mousset-Vos. They left Europe in 1950 to start a new life in Venezuela, along with Mousset-Vos' daughter. They posed as cousins and lived together in Caracas for two decades. Mousset-Vos worked at the French embassy and Hwang worked in a bank. Due to an illness, Hwang was forced to take strong medication and she suffered a stroke before the treatment was completed. Due to Hwang's deteriorating health, the couple returned to Europe in the late 1960s.
Nadine Hwang died in February 1972, Nelly Mousset-Vos in 1985, and they are buried in different graves in Brussels.
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