Shorts + intro by SNAP! + Q&A

Short film programme: Intro by SNAP! Festival + Q&A with filmmakers

Location: Zaal | Times 20:00-21:30 | Tickets €11,25 @ Cinetol

Many of the films in this shorts programme have screened before at SNAP! Festival, who will be present to introduce the screening.

More about presenter Marianne Chargois & SNAP!

This Brussels-based Sex workers Narratives Arts & Politics festival is SW-led and entirely dedicated to the discourses, representations and issues related to sex work. SNAP! has been a huge inspiration to us over the years- visiting their gorgeous festival truly helped envision Whorehouse Cinema and look for sw- created art! We opened their festival last year and now it’s our turn to welcome them in return. And we can continue snapping our fingers throughout the festival, as the SNAP! creator Marianne Chargois will also perform during the ‘Whorehouse Cabaret’ performance night on Saturday!

42 Days

Nat Portnoy | The Netherlands | 2020 | 11 min | Polish with English subs

42 Days focuses on the moment of confrontation with a terminal disease and an attempt to process a personal tragedy. 

The film, in a form of visual diary, takes the viewers onto a journey of realisations regarding the author’s difficult family relations, gender and sexual identity and the lack of control. It reflects on shame, guilt and the experience of queerness in a conservative, Catholic setting as well as on the concepts of migration and re-rooting. The author speculates whether it’s possible to fully accept one’s fate.

This film deals with topics like terminal disease, disability and suicide.

Not in Love (Pas Amoureux) 

Eugénie Bouquet | Switzerland | 2022 | 4 min | French with English subs

Two people are sitting on a bench in the Parc des Bastions in Geneva. One, Judith, is a sex worker who talks about her experience with disabled clients. The other one, me, is interviewing and recording her. An animated documentary about sex between people who are not in love.

This film engages with themes of illness and death.

Prima Vista

Squareheart & Cornpop Bright | Greece | 2024 | 3 min | No spoken  language

Every gaze carries within it the potential for profound understanding. Through the lens of a woman’s eyes, we watch a private performance where sight transcends mere observation, becoming a vessel for connection and empathy.

READY

Vincent Weschelberger | Germany | 2024 | 10 min | English 

READY is an honest portrait of contemporary queer sex work emerging out of [the director’s] own relationship to it. This series offers a window into our reality – the elation and self-actualization, as well as the struggles and stigma we experience.

Reisende 

Cosmopolitrans, ESWA, BV Trans | Germany | 2023 | 14 min | Spanish with English subs

This short documentary addresses in a sensitive and detailed way the lives of migrant trans women working in the sex sector in Germany. 

Through personal testimonies and intimate narratives, the multiple difficulties that these women face are exposed, such as discrimination, economic precariousness, and legal and social obstacles. However, the documentary also highlights their achievements and the resilience they demonstrate in facing these challenges. It shows how they find support in supportive communities and support networks, and how they fight for their rights and dignity in an often hostile environment.

Sugar
Alyssa Brayboy | USA | 2023 | 6 min | English 

We follow Banner on his search for a sex worker. He stumbles across Alora, who is usually up for anything, but she quickly learns Banner isn’t a typical client.

Toomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves

Chintis Lundgren | Estonia, Croatia, France | 2019 | 18 min | English

 

After losing a well paid engineering job, Toomas, a young hot wolf, gets cornered into working as a gigolo to support his family. He is keeping it a secret from his pregnant wife Viivi. Viivi also has a secret: she is attending a female empowerment seminar involving male slaves. When Toomas gets a role in a sexploitation movie, it becomes harder to keep his new profession a secret.