Juicy Challenges At The Berlin Pornfilmfestival

The idea of a film festival for porn might feel a bit weird to the majority of cinephiles, but those who are staged in Berlin have probably gotten used to it by now. In it's 9th edition the annual Pornfilmfestival again attracted a huge crowd (too big for the small venue at Kino Movimiento) that was by far not only composed of people associated with the alternative porn community like performers and filmmakers but included just as many sex positive cinephiles, art lovers and fans of good pornography. With his crowed the festival was again able to create a small utopia, a queer microcosm where people of all genders, orientations and interests got together to celebrate sexual diversity and indulge in their shared passion for sex on screen. 

After the BDSM emphasis of the 2013 festival this year's program focused on feminist pornography. Herewith the Pornfilmfestival achieved a gender balance that other festivals can only dream about: Female filmmakers were actually in the majority, many of them regular attendees of the festival. Like french director Ovidie, famous for her especially funny porn movies, who presented the hilarious and yet very sexy work Pulsion. The film tells the story of Eva, a 28 year old women suffering of "Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder". Seeking a cure for her "illness" she joins a group therapy for sexual deviant behavior that takes place in a remote country house. By bringing together different sexual "abnormalities" Ovidie poses the important question about the norm we construct around sexuality: Where is the line between fetish and "disorder"? And who defines what is "normal" sex? With surprisingly good actors, a lot of humor and juicy sex scenes Ovidie managed to entertain the festival audience that responded with ongoing laughter and a big applause. 

Petra Joy, another regular of the festival, not only showed her new film (S)He Comes but also celebrated her 10th anniversary as a porn filmmaker. Joy might be considered the most consequent feminist porn director. Having a set of very strict production values she only films "authentic" sexual encounters. While she draws heavily from fantasies that her female fans share with her, she never choreographs but instead brings together people who are really into each other and indulge in whatever turns them on. Petra Joy only provides the setting - in this case for example a beach house or a sex shop - and a vague idea of the situation, like a threesome or a seduction, and encourages her actors, who she calls "players", to fill these spaces with their own authentic sexuality. As a viewer one can feel the passion and the intimacy of the situation, witnessing not only sexual intercourse but also playful encounters and soothing cuddles.

In her film Shatter queer filmmaker Goodyn Green manages to combine Joy's authentic intimacy with a lot of juice - something Joy's films unfortunately often lack. With the help of the Berlin queer community - many of her performers were actually present at the festival - Green composes a collection of pornographic episodes, involving masturbation, power play as well as bondage. Compared to Petra Joy she puts more emphasis on the visuals, creating beautiful pictures that present a multifaceted picture of the female body and its sexuality. 

Even more visual, paying a lot of attention to aesthetics, is the newest work of Erika Lust XConfessions. As Petra Joy, Lust also works with the fantasies of her audience. Every scene is the realization of a true confession, but Lust goes far beyond the mere visualization of these erotic dreams. Many of the episodes in XConfessions are true works of cinematic art, with careful lightening, an elaborate choice of colors and shapes, and a thoughtful employment of symbolism. The great achievement of Erika Lust is that she never falls into the trap of artificiality. Even though her images are carefully composed they are still damn hot and can communicate as well as raise sexual desire. 

Apart from these pornographic highlights the festival also presented a section of documentaries, among them the quite challenging film Love Hard that shows sadomasochist relationships far beyond the romantic ass-spanking that 50 Shades of Grey put into our minds. Director Gala Vanting captures very intimate sexual moments of her protagonists, shows them acting out their fetishes as well as reflecting on them in front of the camera. The interview sequences serve very well to see the individual people instead of the mere acts they perform, which in their extremes are most probably unknown and maybe shocking to many viewers. Vanting gives the audience a chance to understand the underlying feelings of the presented power plays, the deep connectedness of the people involved and the love they feel for one another.

As is Love Hard, attending the Pornfilmfestival is also challenging in a good way. First of all it is of course quite odd to watch hard core pornography with a bunch of people you've never seen before. Because pornography is what it is: It is supposed to arouse its audience. Like a comedy is supposed to make to you laugh and a drama is supposed to make you cry, porn is supposed to make you horny. And so it does! But we are not used to this feeling in the context of a public cinema. This is definitely a situation that takes some getting used to. But the festival is also challenging on a different level, confronting it's audience with the variety of sexuality, identity and gender. Furthermore it raises the question of the differentiation between porn and other movie genres and it does so quite self consciously as in this year's panel discussion "Art House Goes Art Porn". Unfortunately this talk with porn directors and performers focused too much on a collective Lars von Trier bashing. But it also pointed out the paradox of mainstream and art house cinema that shows a (growing) interested in "real" sex while shying away from it at the same time, using fake genitals and anonymous body doubles (who do not get any credit for their work). 

Finally the Berlin Pornfilmfestival also challenges our concept of porn itself by showing that pornography actually is cinematic art, can be approached as such and that the difference between art porn and art house is a quite hypocritical one. So for those of you who are up to the before mentioned challenges I highly recommend attending the 10th edition next year!