Very rarely seen experimental sex films, from famous experimental filmmakers. Curated by Martha from Cherry Kino, a great programmer from the Leeds film festival, and who will be there for the night to introduce the films!

"Erotica is good and we need it. We truly believe that it is possible to create an alternative to the mainstream porn industry by making sexy films we like."  - Number 10 of the Dirty Diaries Manifesto

As an antidote to the commercially induced fever of Valentine's Day and its accompanying money sweat on plastic consumables and conventional toss, we invite you to a screening of experimental sex films made by artists including Valie Export, Dietmar Brehm, Carolee Schneeman, Albert Sackl, and films by the Swedish feminist porn filmmakers responsible for "Dirty Diaries".

PLEASE BE AWARE: THIS PROGRAMME CONTAINS SCENES OF AN EXPLICIT SEXUAL
NATURE AND IS STRICTLY ADULTS ONLY

THE PROGRAMME

The full programme will last about 100min, and will comprise of:

Mann & Frau & Animal from Valie Export (1973, Austria, format: 16mm)

This is part of the earlier films of Valie Export (born in 1940), which were motivated by the author's desire and need to investigate her own subjectivity, with the audience as a necessary part of the transference and the polemic. Man & Woman & Animal shows a woman finding pleasure in herself, the whole film is a kind of assertion and affirmation of female sexuality and its independence from male values and pleasures...

Halcion from Dietmar Brehm (2007, Austria, format: 16mm)

Halcion is the title of the most recent work from Austria's most productive film studio - that of Dietmar BREHM.

The film is named after a sleeping pill which Brehm explained in a letter 'induces pastel colored dreams and watery images'. Its appearance leaves little doubt that a key to the film lies in its title: we are given to see the vision of a dream that has coagulated to film.

Fuses from Carolee Schneemann (1967, US, format: 16mm)

This film won a Special Jury Selection Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Fuses portrayed Schneemann and her then-boyfriend James Tenney having sex as recorded by a 16 mm Bolex camera. Schneemann then altered the film by staining, burning, and directly drawing on the celluloid itself, mixing the concepts of painting and collage. The segments were edited together at varying speeds and superimposed with photographs of nature, which she juxtaposed against her and Tenney's bodies and sexual actions.

Fuses was motivated by Schneemann's desire to know if a woman's depiction of her own sexual acts was different from pornography and classical art. She showed the film to her contemporaries as she worked on it in 1965 and 1966, receiving mostly positive feedback from her peers. Many critics though described it as "narcissistic exhibitionism" and described it as self-indulgent. She received an especially strong reaction regarding the cunnilingus scene of the film. While Fuses is viewed as a "proto-feminist" film, Schneemann feels that it was largely neglected by feminist film historians.

Stiffness I + II from Albert Schackl (Austria, 2007, 6min, format: 16mm)

The director masturbates in front of the camera, with 10 years between Stiffness I and Stiffness II.

+ 4 FILMS FROM THE "DIRTY DIARIES" (2009, Sweden):

Red Like Cherry from Tora Martens (DVD)

This is a series of quick, blurred clips of unidentifiable people swimming in the surf of a beach and then having sex in a room. This film was made with the intention of showing sex without the usual central focus generally made on male ejaculation.

Night Time from Nelli Roselli (DVD)

The film shows a woman kissing a man passionately while filming herself. They both proceed to perform oral sex on each other while the woman later uses a vibrator to reach orgasm.

For The Liberation of Men from Jennifer Rainsford (DVD)

This is an abstract mix of clips of a man clad in women's clothing masturbating. This film was born out of discussions that the director had with an old woman about her sexual fantasies.

Skin from Elin Magnusson (DVD)

Two figures, one male and one female, clad in full-body nylon stockings caressing and kissing each other intimately. After a while, the two figures begin to cut open the nylon with a pair of scissors to reveal the naked skin underneath, and engage in oral and penetrative sex. There is no dialogue and only soft background music.

You can see a preview of it here: http://www.elinmagnusson.com/skin.html

ABOUT THE DIRTY DIARIES

Dirty Diaries is a 2009 collection of thirteen pornographic short films made by Swedish feminists and produced by Mia Engberg.

The individual films are highly diverse in content, although many of them feature humour and different forms of queer sex. The creative decisions were based on a manifesto with the aim to create pornography that is non-commercial and follows feminist ideals.

The films received mixed critical reception, some critics finding the films good and amusing, and others finding them dull.

The films followed a 10 point manifesto:

1. Beautiful the way we are

To hell with the sick beauty ideals! Deep self-hatred keeps a lot of women's energy and creativity sapped. The energy that could be focused into exploring our own sexuality and power is being drained off into diets and cosmetics. Don't let the commercial powers control your needs and desires.

2. Fight for your right to be horny

Male sexuality is seen as a force of nature that has to be satisfied at all costs while women's sexuality is accepted only if it adapts to men's needs. Be horny on your own terms.

3. A good girl is a bad girl

We are fed up with the cultural cliché that sexually active and independent women are either crazy or lesbian and therefore crazy. We want to see and make movies where Betty Blue, Ophelia and Thelma & Louise don't have to die in the end.

4. Smash capitalism and patriarchy

The porn industry is sexist because we live in a patriarchal capitalist society. It makes profit out of people’s needs for sex and erotica and women get exploited in the process. To fight sexist porn you have to smash capitalism and patriarchy.

5. As nasty as we wanna be

Enjoy, take charge or let go. Say NO when you want, to be able to say YES when YOU want.

6. Legal and free abortion is a human right!

Everyone has the right to control their own body. Millions of women suffer from unwanted pregnancies and die from illegal abortions every year. Fuck the moral right for preaching against birth control and sex information.

7. Fight the real enemy!

Censorship cannot liberate sexuality. It is impossible to change the image of women's sexuality if sexual images in themselves are taboo. Don't attack women for displaying sex. Attack sexism for trying to control our sexuality.

8. Stay Queer

A lot of opposition to erotica is homophobic and even more transphobic. We don't believe in the fight between the sexes but in the fight against sexes. Identify as any gender you want and make love to whoever you want. Sexuality is diverse.

9. Use Protection

"I'm not saying go out an' do it, but if you do, strap it up before you smack it up." (Missy Elliot)

10. Do it yourself

Erotica is good and we need it. We truly believe that it is possible to create an alternative to the mainstream porn industry by making sexy films we like.

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If you want to know more, you can have a look here:

http://www.dirtydiaries.se/

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More info on the curator Cheery Kino here:
http://cherrykino.blogspot.com/

Entry: £5/£3.50