For the last twelve years, Berlin becomes a haven for both adult filmmakers and those who are ready to consume it for one full week. “Germany’s most unusual film festival” is indeed, the Porn Film Festival. The festival hosted around 150 screenings (to view the whole catalog, go here), workshops, lectures, panels, performances, and exhibitions. We ran around as much as physically possible and attended the eye-opening “DIY Digital Gender Workshop” with TECNOLOGÍAS MASTURBATORIAS.

The idea behind this film festival is to question and ultimately, abandon conventional ideas of morality, sexuality, gender norms, and shame. The festival allows “anything and everything that offers pleasure”. This year’s short film competition, a PFF tradition, was judged by Ingo Cando (behind the Queer multi-layered Wotever World, Queer Art & Culture and Wotever DIY Film Festival), John Badalu (one of the founders of the controversial Q! Film Festival in Indonesia, Festival Delegate and Programmer for Berlinale, Shanghai International Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and QCinema Film Festival) and Yavuz Kurtulmus (son of Turkish/ Macedonian immigrants to Austria, founded MiGaY, started TRANSITION Queer Minorities Film Festival Vienna).

Twenty-five feature films in the festival were competing for best feature, chosen by an international jury including: Frédéric Jaeger (chief editor of magazine critic.de, writer for Berliner Zeitung, Spiegel Online, taz, Der Freitag, Die Presse, Kolik, chairman of the board of the German Film Critics’ Association), Jenni Zylka (writes for daily newspapers and magazines, works as a radio host, member of the Berlinale screening committee, moderates for other film festivals), and Petra dos Santos (designs leather fetish accessories).

Lina Bembe. Photo: Owen Gray

This year’s performers in focus were Bishop Black (a British performer with a background in movement and performance art who started working within the porn industry 9 years ago and involved within the queer feminist porn scene) and Lina Bembe (a Mexican performer and model based in Berlin with experience in the  European alt-porn scene, ranging from feminist amateur to queer post-porn narratives and occasionally engages in non-explicit films about feminism and sexuality).

Bishop Black. Photo: Owen Gray

Our favorites:

GIRLS PLEASURE TRIP PORN SHORTS

Two groups, two trips and a whole lotta lust. Locations include abandoned houses and experiences are not limited to, learning how to roll the dice. These shorts were fun-spirited and ideal to watch in a public setting.

THE FEMINISTING OF TENTACLE PORN - LO-FI CHERRY

DIY porn filmmaker Lo-Fi Cherry features female bodied tentacle monsters. Lo-Fi Cherry’s films ask questions like, which orgasms lead to something physical? This is future porn, where the masculine is strange and the feminine is a sexual predator.

YO EXHIBICIONISTA - JORDI SOLER

Spanish dancer and performer Jordi Soler screens his playful and amatuer debut for gay sex and gay porn with “Yo Exhibicionista”, the first film in a planned trilogy.

Plan your next year at their official website.