HOW TO FAKE AN ORGASM...-
WHETHER YOU NEED IT OR NOT

At a festival given over to the thematic subjects of love, kissing and sexuality, a look at pornography should not go amiss. After all, the grand porn debate keeps flaring up - and not just in various feminist corners - as we have recently seen with ROMANCE and BAISE-MOI. The distinction between art and pornography that moral custodians and critics like to draw is becoming increasingly blurred all the time.

Our programme will be unveiling pornography from different angles. The women directors of the films selected either deconstruct the pornographic images and aesthetics or recuperate them. In REMOVED, for instance, Naomi Uman processes the actual film material in that she obliterates the female object of desire out of the porn celluloid. In SAILORS' GIRLS, Marianne Stoll takes the viewer on a guided tour round a rubber doll factory. Her schematically composed aesthetic pictures render any sexual response to the dolls impossible. Standing at the screen for her programme entitled HERSTORY OF PORN, the inimitable Annie Sprinkle will be showing highlights from the more than 150 sex movies in her career and providing a direct commentary. According to Linda Williams, Annie "has changed the face of pornography, created new possibilities for the representation of sexuality and battled censorship every step of the way".

A small selection of porn films from the silent film era in France are the only "real" porn movies to be seen in our programme. Including FATIMA which, shown at the 1895 World Exposition Chicago, caused a huge sensation. By 1907, the Chicago Board of Censors forbade any further unregimented look at Fatima erotically swaying her breasts and hips. The bars retouched into the print are as hilarious now as they were then.

TALKS CONCERNING THE THEME:

Fri. 30.3., 21 h, DKH:
Good erotic works by women versus bad mainstream porn
by Corinna R¸ckert
This talk will give a historical overview of the grand porn debate which never quite seems to go away. It starts with a look at the first research results and the arguments of radical feminist anti-porn campaigners before moving on to examine the current level of discussion .
Sat. 31.3. 15 h, DKH-Studio :
The naked truth? Pornography as constructed authenticity
Illustrated talk by Andrea Seier und Sabine Schicke The speakers at this talk will be examining the connection between confession techniques and pornographic claims of authenticity on the basis of two phenomena typical for the 1970s: hardcore porn and the "Schoolgirl Report".

The films of the programme:

ANNIE SPRINKLE'S HERSTORY OF PORN (Annie Sprinkle, USA 1999): Thu. 29.3., 21.30 Uhr, DKH HOW TO FAKE AN ORGASM (Dayna McLeod, CDN 1999): Thu. 29.3., 21.30 Uhr, DKH
REMOVED (Naomi Uman, USA/Mexiko 1999):
Thu. 29.3., 21.30 Uhr, DKH

SEEMANNSBRŸUTE (Marianne Stoll, D 1996):
Thu. 29.3., 21.30 Uhr, DKH
STUMMFILMPORNOS (F, 20er Jahre):
Fri. 30.3.,21 Uhr, DKH