Art + Abstract
LABEL ME
by Paisley Heart [AUS]
An acknowledgment of male-bodied insecurities, body shaming, and stereotyping. A small attempt to bridge the gender gap.
The bandaids, words, and blood represent the wound. The flowers represent healing through art, personal development, and sharing our experiences.
WOMAN
by Tsai Hsi Hung [USA]
Semi-Finalist of the New York Cinematography AWARDS
Three women – each isolated in their own room. They look within to find strength and use their experiences as women to communicate a hope for the future.
MOIST
by Seduction Productions, Hannah Heart & B. Gonclaves [USA]
Moist is an abstract erotic art film that explores the themes of thirst, wetness, dewy innocence and the shape-shifting element of water. Flowing between different states and expressions of passion, you watch the dynamic erotic connection between two women unfold. Shot cinematically and performed authentically, Moist is a sensational short film that desires the audience to feel warm liquid surrounding their bodies…
Educational + Documentary
COSMIC TOUCH
by Nathan Novaro
A docu-therapy film capturing the healing power of intentional female self pleasure.
Director statement
“Cosmic Touch depicts a woman embracing self-pleasure and confronting the shame that can arise when witnessed in owning that pleasure. The images we typically get from modern media when we think of female masturbation: the goal of having a “mind-blowing” orgasm, the ever-intensifying tools of sensation, the narrative and the film angles tailored to the male gaze for male pleasure.
Not so with Cosmic Touch.
In this film, no direction was given. No goal was expected. No one was paid. This was a genuine gathering of co-creators united to discover and heal through the medium of film. All that was Brough was reverence, curiosity, and cameras.
What happened next … was cosmic.”
UEFU “U Equals Fucking U”
by AltSHIFT [UK]
UEFU (short for “U Equals Fucking U”) is a two part adult short written by HIV positive queer porn star Kayden Gray.
“The drama-filled storyline of Part 1 (“Dirty?”), where inexperienced Bishop and HIV-positive Kayden discover the condom slipped off somewhere during sex, illustrates the detrimental effects of lack of HIV awareness and its roots, and focuses on the complexities of disclosure. The episode also features a humorous appearance from Bianca Del Rio, whose character brings about an unexpected plot twist. The segment marks the beginning of a new upbeat sexual wellbeing campaign, How To Stay Neg – a collaboration between Kayden Gray and Impulse Group – the largest international volunteer-based gay men’s wellbeing organisation.
The authenticity of UEFU stretches beyond the screen. Following a discussion between the performers during pre-production, Bishop (who’s HIV negative) consented to coming off PrEP for the time of the filming, leaving Kayden being on antiretroviral treatment as his only HIV prevention tool. His decision allowed UEFU to do more than support U equals U theoretically – it transformed the film into a real-life testimony to the reliability of treatment as prevention, making UEFU the first of its kind.”
THE JOURNEY OF MONALISA
by Nicole Costa [CHILE]
In 1995, in the midst of a promising theatrical career in Chile, the artist Iván Ojeda is invited to New York to perform a theatrical investigation at the New Dramatists. Upon finishing his investigation, Ivan decides to stay behind, is reborn as Monalisa and begins to work as a prostitute. Seventeen years later, his former colleague from the University of Chile and the director of this film, Nicole, arrives to live to New York City. Together they begin a journey in a quest to understand the motives that led Ivan to the choice of self-exile and marginalization in the search for identity.
Director Statement
“When Iván Monalisa showed me his writings for the first time , on handwritten notebook sheets, I felt dizzily transported to all those years when I had no word from him: A journey filled with sordid landscapes, arrests, drugs, lonely johns, infatuation and disease. And without a hint of victimhood or resentment, let alone guilt. Paradoxically, his tale transmitted tenderness, sensitivity and a great sense of friendship. His stories really moved me. They had clearly been written without caring about other people’s expectations, and once again, I was certain that I was in front of a natural born artist, authentic and marginalized; a survivor. Understanding his complexity as a transgender person and being an active participant in his artistic and personal achievements, is one of the most rewarding gifts I have received in the process of this work, as well as the unchallenged proof that love and respect are the most effective encouragement in the exertion of empathy and tolerance.”
QUEER / LGBTIQA+
TWO LOVERS
by Ryan Lee Adams [AUS]
A short abstract film showcasing two lovers and their passion for one another, intertwined with their passion for movement and dance.
EROS TOUCH RITUAL
by Julian Martin [SWITZERLAND]
Julian Martin gives an intimate glimpse of sensual man to man massage during a performance in front of a mixed audience.
FOR JOE
by Julia Graham [AUS]
When filming this piece, it was difficult to keep the camera steady. To experience and subsequently capture the soft, pure innocence of energy shared with another women is beyond beautiful.
I chose to be apart of the shoot, with an intention.. as the artist of embodying the desire. Bridging the gap between vision and experience. This piece inspired the creation of Awakened Eros, to create embodied and experiential visual art pieces.
SLUT EYES
by Kirilly Tipping & Mia Mor [AUS]
Woman fantasises about a woman and the subtle ways in which she feels seduced by her. She struggles to find words for one part of her fantasy lover..
BDSM / KINK
SWEET SURRENDER
by Amber Hopkins [AUS]
A journey into the blissful state of surrender accessed through Divine Dominance and Sacred Submission. By bringing the principles of tantra to BDSM, the experience is spiritual, sensual, exciting and transformative. It’s aim is to show some of the potential possible when bringing love, consent and awareness to the often taboo and misrepresented realms of kink and BDSM.
KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT MY DEAR
by Lily Rinae [JAPAN]
COVID-19 VS BDSM.
Submissive man wants to serve his mistress, but he is also a clean-freak, germ phobia. He was worrying when he has a session. “Is my tongue clean?” The story about human suffering. The video focuses on their physical expression of passion and emotion.
SHIBARI
THE SUMMONING – BLIND DEVOTION
by Sai Jaiden Lillith [AUS]
An exploration of blindness, eroticism and ritual sex magick. Authentic vulnerability and an opening to inner sight, ridden by a consensual possession, taken on a erotic visioning journey by a summoned demon.
HOLY TRINITY
by Adam Singer & Bella Reynolds [AUS]
GROUP / ECOLOGY / NATURE
DANCE OF THE HEART
by Brighid Rose [AUS]
This short film created by Brighid Rose and Ryan Lee Adams is a dance of untamed romantic love. It is an expression of unbridled shadows that seep into the longings of the heart and craft stories of delusion and magnificence, followed by the terror that ensues. It is a dance of the wild feminine who sets out to kill those she loves, to the detriment of not only her prey, but also her own heart.
BODIES OF DESIRE
by Varsha Panikar, Saad Nawab (INDIA)
Using Varsha Panikar’s poetry series by the same name, as the point of departure, Bodies of Desire is a queer spoke-word film co-directed by her and Saad Nawab. The film captures four sets of lovers amid passion; to create a portrait of tender intimacy, of longing, of discovery, of desire, of embrace and care, of profound companionship.
It is a sensual celebration of universal love and desire, inspired by the poet’s lived reality. The text follows the poet’s journey of healing and self-acceptance as she rediscovers love, passion, and identity after encountering her muse, her lover, who acts as an encounter, a rupture that awakens the poet and her desire to express her inner truth, and inevitably puts her on a path of discovering her own power and uniqueness.
MENAGE À TROIS
by Inka Winter – ForPlay Films (USA)
In her dream Kira Noir is joined by Demi Sutra and Rob Piper for a sensual yet passionate menage à trois.
SELF PLEASURE
APHRODITE
by Sia Hu Heka [NZ]
She is inside us, erotic, feminine, gentle, loving essence running through our bodies when we allow her to guide us.
Eros is her child.
RITUAL WAVES
by Lina Bembe [GERMANY]
A film centred in ritualistic practices of healing through sexual agency. It claims for a space of introspection and celebration through autoeroticism, with water as an element of strength, depth and resilience through fluidity.
FLOW
by Wang Chen [AUS]
Wang Chen’s feminism video ‘Flow’ tells about female desire: How does a young housewife feel and show her desires hiding in plain home life, through a cup of water.
Performance, Cinematographer, Voiceover – Wang Chen
