BODY POLITICS
With a focus on everything from fertility and ‘ableism’ to discrimination and trauma, we dive into highly topical conversations about the body as a battleground.
With a focus on everything from fertility and ‘ableism’ to discrimination and trauma, we dive into highly topical conversations about the body as a battleground.
How do we imagine the normal body, and have we created a society that makes it difficult for everyone who does not fit within the narrow definition of a so-called “normal body”?
Body autonomy is constantly negotiated, and in these times, our understanding of both rights and violations is increasingly linked to lived, bodily experiences.
This is what we want to explore further with this year’s theme: Who decides over the body, how much should it weigh, where is it allowed to go, how much can it change, what color may it be, and why do some bodies face more prejudice than others?
Films with the body in focus
Stray Bodies
Involuntary body related travelling is on the rise in Europe, with women crossing EU borders to reclaim the right to their own bodies. Abortion and artificial insemination are just two items on the list in a film that maps the continent.
Elina Psykou / Greece, Switzerland, Italy & Bulgaria / 2024 / International Premiere
Can’t Feel Nothing
An eye-opening film about numbness in the age of social media. The diagnosis is alarming, but it is made with understated humour and energy by director David Borenstein, himself a screen zombie in digital rehab.
Echo of You
A poetic and touchingly honest film about lifelong love and what remains when it disappears. The echoes of love resound in the poignant, humorous and life-affirming stories of those left behind.
Eros
Brazil's love motels are a sexual haven where fantasy becomes reality. When the filmmaker's own date never shows up, she gets a fresh idea for a film instead. The result is a kaleidoscopic insight into a parallel world of human desire.
Eternal You
Can modern technology realise the dream of eternal life? Yes, say the sci-fi optimists in Silicon Valley, who are determined to make death obsolete through artificial intelligence in a film that soberly and thoughtfully raises the biggest questions - and provides possible answers.
Our Body
Monumental and unfiltered story about women and their bodies, told empathetically and insightfully through the eyes of patients, doctors and nurses in a Parisian public hospital.
Rehab (From Rehab)
How can a building become part of the treatment in physical and mental rehabilitation? A film about architecture, bodies and universal design that could revolutionise the way we shape our shared spaces.
This is Ballroom
An upbeat tribute to the Brazilian ballroom scene, where LGBTQ+ and non-white people create the creative space they are not allowed in a repressive society.
Your Fat Friend
A humorous, personal and highly educational manifesto about being fat in a world designed for thin people. Based on the iconic texts and activist Aubrey Gordon, and on six years of lived experience from anonymous blogger to best-selling author.