19. Pornfilmfestival Berlin: Elevator Girls in Bondage ( Eröffnungsfilm Retro 2024)

The Pornfilmfestival Berlin (PFFB) returns for its 19th edition! From October 22-27, 2024, the Moviemento and Babylon Kreuzberg cinemas will once again be showing a variety of feature films, short films and documentaries on the topics of sexuality, politics, feminism, gender diversity, post-porn and body politics.

Highlight of this year's program: the retrospective San Francisco Sexual Babylon!

Together with the PFFB, rausgegangen is lotterying 1x2 tickets for the opening film of the retro program:

Elevator Girls in Bondage by Michael Kalmen (US 1972, 56 min., English OV)
Supporting film: The Bed by James Broughton (US 1968, 20 min., no dialog)

About elevator girls in bondage:

The underpaid, "radically perverted" staff of a shabby hotel mutiny because of the prevailing working conditions. Elevator operator Maxine sings union songs and spouts Marxist slogans. Starring members of the legendary genderfuck drag troupe Cockettes / Angels of Light, including the great Rumi Missabu (who died in April 2024). Rumi plays Maxine, who organizes the Pussy Protection Club to fight back against hotel boss Sally. This anarchic fun with bright colors and hilarious dialogue is preceded by James Broughton's ode to the Summer of Love, The Bed, in which a who's-who of the counterculture playfully demonstrates what you can do in a bed.

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The complete program of the 19th PFFB can already be found online. Advance ticket sales have already started!

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About the retrospective: San Francisco Sexual Babylon

This year's retrospective celebrates the San Francisco Bay Area as the epicenter of sexual liberation in the post-war era and as a mecca of sexually explicit representation in avant-garde films and performances. In sex education and porn, San Francisco has long been the place where new social and sexual possibilities were not only imagined but also boldly tried out. In this profoundly queer city, the clear generational influence is visible across the decades: people who created sexual imagery as part of a liberatory ethos or queer politics taught and inspired others to create something similar in their turn. The Bay Area is also the place in the Western world where sexual radicalism was able to challenge gender separatism, as gay, lesbian and transgender filmmakers often worked in the same ecosystem and influenced each other. Fixed identities faded into the background in favor of polymorphous desire and libidinous solidarity. This retro showcases the history of sex in film and video from San Francisco while honoring the continued vitality of independent lesbian/queer/trans porn production in the region. This tradition is rooted in the belief that porn can liberate and educate as well as pleasure.

Guest curated by Jon Davies and invited by Jürgen Brüning for the Pornfilmfestival Berlin.