EDITORIAL
« The story of a life is continually reshaped by all the true or fictional stories that a subject tells about themselves. This reshaping turns life itself into a fabric of told stories. Both individual and community form their identity by receiving such narratives, which become their actual history for both parts. »
Paul Ricœur, Temps et Récit, III. Le Temps raconté.
Paul Ricœur, Temps et Récit, III. Le Temps raconté.
Everywhere, narratives take shape across all domains—social, artistic, religious, institutional, and political. They do not simply recount events: they weave a plot, give meaning to lived experiences, shape identities, and nourish collective memory. Through them, individual and collective experiences find their meaning. But everywhere too, ideological battles are fought—distorting, censoring, imposing, rewriting. Some narratives dominate, crush, and dictate their vision of the world, while others resist, reinvent themselves, and carve out new spaces. Every narrative becomes a battlefield where the contours of the world to come are drawn.
Dominant narratives today crystallize around reactionary forces that distort truths, rewrite history, and dismantle emancipation movements. The rise of far-right discourse, the undermining of social struggles, the denial of minority rights, and the attacks on feminist, queer, and anti-racist achievements reflect the resurgence of regressive narratives that burn the path toward future emancipations. Everywhere, ideological battles rage, reshaping our understanding of the present and controlling the future. Barely audible, marginalized voices are silenced, erased in favor of a monolithic narrative that denies otherness and
constructs a fantasized past. Faced with the return of a virilist ethos and an ideology of conquest, we refuse erasure and proudly uphold insurgent narratives—those that break the chains, celebrate our differences, tell our singularities, and pave the way for a future free from all domination.
Pornography, as both practice and discourse, is often reduced to a generative cause of sexual violence or a mere manifestation of systemic violence. Yet, it can be a space of resistance. Alternative pornographies embody a struggle to redefine sexual imaginaries, rethink power relations, and challenge normative boundaries. This festival stands within this battle, where sex, gender, and sexuality intertwine and redefine themselves, while confronting two major attacks. On one side, institutionalized progressive movements demonize pornography, portraying it as a vehicle for patriarchal violence and domination, against which one must fight in the name of equality. On the other, conservative discourse seeks to erase the very existence of the creators of these works—voices carrying narratives that challenge established gender norms.
Against these narratives that marginalize our practices and stifle any potential for social transformation through explicit representations of desire, we seek to build a space where new imaginaries can emerge, where sexuality can be reinvented, and where the hard-won advances of marginalized people are reaffirmed — through the embodiment of their lived experiences and the geography of their desires — as foundations for a future free from oppressive structures.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT TICKETS HERE
We accept Cinéville and Article 27.
FESTIVAL PASS
Rue des Fripiers 15, 1000 Brussels
Quai au Bois à Bruler 5-7, 1000 Brussels
Galerie de la Reine 26, 1000 Brussels
Boulevard Barthélemy 20, 1000 Bruxelles
Rue du Marché aux Fromages 10, 1000 Bruxelles
©IDORU ASBL — 2024
CONTACT
spit@brusselspornfilmfestival.com