NEW YORK CITY—Award-winning adult film director, entrepreneur and author Candida Royalle will be in Mexico City this month to take part in the first International Film Festival of Female Directors of Erotic Cinema to be held in Latin America. Joining her on the platform will be famed sex educator and adult film director Tristan Taormino.
"Cinema and Sex, the Feminine Glance" is taking place August 20th through 26th at the Cultural Center Tlatelolco of the National Autnomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Lido Cinema, operated by National Film Archives and the Ministry of Culture.
Royalle will discuss her work and introduce her feature Eyes of Desire at screenings throughout the week. Other female directors to be featured are Jennifer Lyon Bell and Liandra Dahl.
According to organizers of the event, the festival’s objective is to serve as a platform for the exhibition of the most representative films, while establishing a place for dialogue, debate, and reflection from different female visions of pornography, sex, and pleasure.
In addition, three interdisciplinary panels will discuss "Pornography and freedom of speech," as well as "Appropriation of the means of representation" and "Sex, fictitious or sexual education."
For more information, visit the conference's official website and check it out on Facebook. An English language version is in the works.
UPDATE: Tristan Taormino, who arrived in Mexico City late Monday evening for the conference, shared some of her thoughts on it with AVN:
"This is a truly groundbreaking film festival and conference, and I am so thrilled to be a part of it," she wrote in an email. "Everyone I've met thus far, including members of the media, is excited about it. There was a press conference yesterday (I arrived in Mexico afterward so I couldn't go), where filmmakers were interviewed by dozens of media people, including television. It's a unique opportunity to spend time with feminist pornographers from the U.S., Sweden, the Netherlands, and Australia all in one place. The organizers are hosting multiple screenings of each of our films (and they have subtitled them in Spanish), along with question-and-answer sessions, so we get to interact with Mexican viewers and hear their thoughts on this growing movement. One of the remarkable things is that some of the filmmakers' trips were sponsored by their country's embassies (Sweden, the Netherlands), and embassy representatives have been very supportive of the event. Can you imagine the U.S. embassy sponsoring my participation in an event on female pornographers?
"The first event is tonight, last night was meet and greet."
Look for further reports on AVN.com as the conference progresses.
