this is (not) your ocean & When the Body Says Yes

Programme

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  this is (not) your ocean

  Memories of a queer love that was experienced online, but was cut short because one of the lovers died. Yearning bodies that never touched, two distant worlds, but hearts that were joined.
  
  “Sex is a story, and so is a phone call bringing bad tidings, or an Instagram account that someone forgets to delete. I wouldn’t call love a story though. It is perhaps an ocean – stretching out as far as we choose to see.”
  
  This associative stream of images, partly in split screen, is poetic and experimental, with landscapes and streets, flowers, sun and rain, a hand, a seascape, a computer screen, a chat, a bed – and sometimes a flash of a face or a suggestion of intimacy. At times clear, then again raw and out of focus, as home movies and memories can be. Accompanied by reflections from two voices, as a voice-over and poetic texts (by the late San Francisco queer poet Kevin Killian) on screen, until towards the end filmmaker Jordi Wijnalda himself takes over the story.

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  When the Body Says Yes

  Dutch artist melanie bonajo does ongoing research into the current state of intimacy in a world where capitalism has penetrated deep into the personal sphere and where everything can be commodified.
  
  The idea that touch can be a powerful remedy for the modern epidemic of loneliness, is the starting point for When the Body Says Yes. The film, which was part of an immersive installation for the Venice Biennale 2022, brings together a diverse group of people in a space that most resembles a warm, soft womb. Touch is the lingua franca here, and through direct or indirect skin contact, collective experiences such as pleasure, intimacy, closeness, boundaries and consent are explored. Some of the people we also see individually in dreamlike scenes in nature.
  
  Meanwhile, participants tell in voice-over about their relationship with touch, sex and their bodies, evaluating how upbringing, family culture and society leave their imprint. Their frankness is contagious and is bound to lead our minds to the meaning of touch and intimacy in relation to our own bodies.