Pornographic Thunderstorm in Glitter
Sex is more than the Reeperbahn, and for many far away from it. For the first time in Hamburg: Erika Lust. Film maker, culture changer, businesswoman. Mother. Her films are wild, diverse, feministic, inclusive, queer, funny, unflinchingly sexy. Erika Lust opened a new cluster in an old industry and undauntedly continues her way. Her stories and those of others which she translates into images break with the stereotypical ideas of old white men and tell of different loves. In two exclusive programmes, Lust presents films she produced and films that served as inspiration. Jürgen Brüning founded the Porn Film Festival in Berlin in 2006 in order to offer a platform for these different loves, images, films and stories. The festival is one of the capital’s most successful independent formats, disproving all who claim that quotas and diversity would be boring. Body politics are the future.

And those had already been the future in the past: »Pants down, pants down, all pants down!« the Dumpster Kid says to all the men standing around in a circle. Then she lifts her long red dress and starts running. In 1969, Ula Stöckl and Edgar Reitz filmed the »Stories of the Dumpster Kid«. The Dumpster Kid is the afterbirth. Radical and anarchistic.

We discuss the practice of creation and the overcoming of resistance with Helene Hegemann, Ula Stöckl and Erika Lust in the FORUM »Change Makers or the Lust for Change« in cooperation with the literatur altonale. Let’s do it!

Erika Lust: XConfessions & the Inspirations

Erika Lust is an acclaimed adult filmmaker who creates sex-positive, indie adult cinema that portrays sexually intelligent narratives, relatable characters, and realistic hot sex. Based in Barcelona, born in 1977 in Sweden, Erika Lust studied political sciences, feminism and gender studies. Tired of chauvinistic and tacky mainstream porn, she burst into the adult industry in 2004, with the indie short film The Good Girl – a humorous statement of principles. The immediate success of this first attempt encouraged her to pursue a film career. Erika has since then directed multi-awarded erotic films and documentaries, and has written several books.
 
Erika's revolutionary cinema reflects her views on sex as a healthy, natural part of life worth celebrating. With her groundbreaking XConfessions project, she created the first ever crowdsourced erotic film series in the history of adult cinema. Every month, she picks two anonymous fantasies shared on XConfessions and turns them into captivating, explicit short films with high cinematic production values.
 
XConfessions is featured in major media publications all over the world and establishes Erika as a filmmaker with great skills to portray human nature through the narrative of desire, and a unique talent to merge eroticism with witty comedy. With more than 150 short films, Erika also produces and finances guest directors, supporting burgeoning talent across the globe.

This film selection features XConfessions films, based on fans’ fantasies, six Erika Lust originals and one by a guest director. Every piece holds a ground-breaking erotic narrative, where taboos are shattered: from female masturbation to bending gender norms, from group love to fetishes, from dreamy fantasies to naturalist realness- all with an evolving cinematic style that brings a perfect combination of aesthetics and sensuality. This selection also features a trailer made for the celebration of 100 XConfessions films.

Programme 1: A Glimpse of XConfessions
Thursday, 6th of June | 7 pm | Metropolis
Saturday, 8th of June | 8.15 pm | Zeise 1
Programme 2: Awakening Visions
Thursday, 6th of June | 9 pm | Metropolis
Saturday, 8th of June | 10.15 pm | Zeise 1

Visions of Desire - Two short film programmes from the Berlin Pornfilmfestival
The Berlin Pornfilmfestival is the only one of its kind. Since 2006, it has been screening more than 100 films from all over the world, focusing on sexuality, politics, feminism and gender topics. The independent and alternative festival presents female, feminist and queer views on topics such as sexual morality, identity, body norms and attitudes towards morality. The two programmes display just how diverse the artistic-alternative approach towards the pornographic genre can be. They showcase works screened at the 2018 Pornfilmfestival.

The programme »Desire, Domination, Death« presents films that deal with desires and fantasies in BDSM. Four films provide insights into the game of dominance and submission. The Hamburgian director Jochen Hick opens the programme with a guest contribution that offers an intimate view of the life of »Gerd Hansen, 55«. Axel Straudinger’s vintage porn collage »Pornogewitter« transfers the fugue’s musical composition principle to pornographic depictions of love. In his experimental documentary »Protokolle«, Jan Soldat shows us close-ups of obscured faces during which men reveal their secret desires. Jan Soldat captures human sexualities beyond what is considered normal in his work. »Blood« too looks at yearnings. External material and staged scenes are mixed, culminating in a tour de force of sex, pain and self-digestion.

The programme »Body Politics« consists of five films with lots of new perspectives on the capital Berlin. Not only is Berlin the place the directors are calling their home, but it’s also some of the films’ pivotal point. Naya Pascual’s (The Outdoor Cat) film »Piedad» refuses all attempts of classification. Two sex workers are at the centre: They hang out at the Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin, listen to trap music and wait for work. In this postmodern romantic thriller, love, friendship and sex encounter comedy, music and unexpected burials. Harvey Rabbit’s »The Chemo Darkroom« shows the dark room as a space of desire and rediscovery of the own body after chemo therapy. »It’s all consensual!« says the synopsis of »No Democracy Here« by Liad Hussein Kantorowcz. On election day, Liad gives her slaves a lesson in democracy. With an unusual kind of election, the film explores the boundaries between self-determination and submission within the context of BDSM. In their music clip “Release Me”, the Berliner band »Evvol« celebrates the summer of Berlin, queer femininity and intimacy among friends. »This Performance was not in the Programme« unravels the occurrences of a Berlin porn shooting in 2013.

Programme 1: Desire Domination, Death
Friday, 7th of June | 10 pm | B-Movie
Programme 2: Body Politics
Sunday, 9th of June | 9.30 pm | Zeise 2

Stories of the Dumpster Kid
Ula Stöckl, Edgar Reitz, Germany 1971. We are showing a selection "a la carte".
Rather than not finishing a feature film or not having it reach the cinemas or something completely else getting in the way, Edgar Reitz, Ula Stöckl and friends spontaneously shot 22 longer and shorter episodes about the Dumpster Kid in 1969. The Dumpster Kid is hard to describe, you must experience it. You have to subject yourself to this kid and its radical, anarchistic and boundless way of making it through life at full throttle. And since Ula Stöckl’s first feature was called “Neun Leben hat die Katze” (the cat has nine lives), it was obvious that the Dumpster Kid would have ten more at least. And that’s naturally the case. The Dumpster Kid dies only to rise again from the dead. A societal reckoning can’t be clearer. The “Dumpster Kid” is a farewell to yesterday, and already in 1969 this yesterday was represented by the bourgeois auteur film and the traditional way of production that tended to overly dominate the filmic form. Everything needed to change and the “Dumpster Kid” blazed the trail. Ula Stöckl, the radical, courageous, feministic, aesthetic vanguard film maker is a guest at our festival and will present her films herself. À la carte, just like the way it used to be in the beginning.

Storys of the Dumpster Kid
Saturday, 8th of June | 8.15 pm | Lichtmeß

FORUM: Changemakers
With Natascha Geier, Helene Hegemann, Erika Lust and Ula Stöckl.
What the world needs now is more awakening, a transgression of conventional boundaries, something new. It’s time to dust off the every-day life and revolutionize praxis. The Swedish film maker and pioneer of feminist pornography Erika Lust did just that: She reinvented the genre and pried open prudency with love. Helena Hegemann wrote her first play at 13, directed her first film at 14 and published her first novel at 18. How does she perceive this world? 1968: Edgar Reitz and Ula Stöckl invent the “Dumpster Kid”, a film series about a woman who grows up in a bucket and either bashes down or over-accomplishes society’s rules of play. Naturally, the over-accomplishment turns out to be just as bad as the bashing down. A radical reckoning of conventional narratives and society.
Cultural journalist Natascha Geier discusses the practice of work beyond all manifests and the lust for change.

In cooperation with literatur altonale.

Helene Hegemann (b. 1992) lives in Berlin. Her first film »Torpedo« won the Max Ophüls Award in 2008. She debuted as a novelist with »Axolotl Roadkill« in 2010, and the book has been translated into 20 languages since. In 2013, her novel »Jage zwei Tiger« was published, followed by »Bungalow« in 2018. She directs at the theatre and the opera and writes columns and essays for magazines and newspapers.

Erika Lust is an acclaimed filmmaker who creates artistic, indie adult cinema that portrays sexually intelligent narratives, relatable characters, and realistic hot sex. In 2015, she gave her essential TEDx talk »It’s Time for Porn to Change«. On her crowd-sourced project XConfessions, she takes anonymous user-submitted fantasies and turns them into captivating, explicit short films that go beyond traditional gender roles and tired stereotypes.

Ula Stöckl (b. 1938) studied at the Ulm Institute of Film Design at the Ulm School of Design. Her film »Neun Leben hat die Katze« (1968) is considered to be the first feminist film in Western Germany. She made over twenty films which she mostly wrote and produced herself. Today, she teaches as a professor of directing and women in film at the University of Central Florida.

Natascha Geier is a cultural journalist, film maker and author as well as one of the founding members of the »Pro Quote« initiative.

FORUM: Changemakers
Saturday, 8th of June | 3 pm | Festival Center Post