NEW YORK—Aorta Films, known for its queer/trans productions, and Excéntrico, an international porn film festival in Chile, are collaborating to host Bedded, Aorta's 9th bi-annual queer porn film festival, set to stream online June 1-30.
With Aorta Films’ creative director Mahx Capacity honored as a "Filmmaker in Focus" at Excéntrico earlier this year, the company has named Nicola Ríos, Excéntrico co-founder and program director, as festival curator.
Among the films selected for the festival are:
• Uma Paciência Selvagem Me Trouxe Até Aqui ("A Wild Patience Brought Me Here") by Brazilian queer filmmaker Eri Sarmet, exploring the power of explicit cinema to weave together transgenerational stories, connecting the past and present of lesbian sexualities.
• Xnoternura (Pornotenderness) by independent Argentine gay porn filmmaker Julian Merlo, delving into the intimate encounter between two men, intertwining their sexual experiences with discussions on politics, stigma and health.
• Hambre (Hunger) by Chilean sexual dissidence archivist and videographer Andrés Valenzuela, providing an intimate look into the life of Melisa Nina, a performer, dancer and migrant sex worker, through a layered documentary that captures her voice, desires and experiences.
“So much of my heart is wrapped up in this international indie porn ecology and queer archive that we are building together as makers, viewers, co-conspirators and believers in what porn can be,” wrote Capacity in his "Filmmaker in Focus" statement for Excéntrico.
The festival is scheduled to stream on the studio's pay portal AortaFilms.com. Aorta is also offering a 10 percent discount to new members using the code “BEDMEIX.”
To make international films accessible to Chilean audiences, Excéntrico is creating Spanish subtitles for Aorta Films’ library of 95-plus short films, and will use inclusive language to respect the pronouns of each performer. Aorta Films will offer optional Spanish subtitles for viewers starting in late fall 2024.
“We believe an exchange like this is how we can ’give back’ to Aorta Films for their years of collaboration with us. Sometimes there's no money, but there's our work and other non-monetary forms of exchange,” Ríos said. “At the end of the day, this is how our community of pornographers survive.”
In addition to Aorta Films' rollout of Spanish subtitles for their catalog this fall, Ríos will also curate an Aorta screening event in New York in November, as well as the December edition of Bedded.
For more information, visit aortafilms.com.
