Editor
The penis as a source of identity and restlessness, legitimation for claims to dominance and fantasies of superiority, the object of fears of failure and loss: this small part of the body occupies a similarly highly dimensioned status in the physical and social self-image of men as does the brain. "Penissimo" traces this circumstance and its consequences for human culture with the help of six men with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds who try to investigate what role the penis plays as a key to the essence of masculinity.
Editor
VIVA LA VULVA is a documentary film that casts a glance right into the centre of female sexuality – historically, culturally, and politically. With a sense of humour, but earnestly and profoundly it examines this very symbol and indicator of women's self-determination, a mystic source of life and anarchic threat to patriarchal systems. Made a symbol of the forbidden, the vulva is attributed its due cultural significance only by being heavily negated, while its fictitious existence as a focus of male sexual phantasies and the pressure to adapt exerted on women make it a significant economic factor. From church to psychoanalysis: what women carry between their legs seems second-rate to the primacy of the penis. But VIVA LA VULVA can also give hope to those awaiting a turn towards a self-determined female sexuality and a new, confident self-definition of women. Not deadly serious, but with informative verve we tell the tale of the new self-awareness of the female sex.
