Monika Treut

The sexual fantasies of women are explored by four female directors.

Wanda, a dominatrix who runs an S&M gallery on the Hamburg waterfront, must choose between her lesbian lover and an American trainee.

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A woman who is mourning the love of her life falls into a relationship with a mysterious stranger.

Alex is 16, a misfit, a drop-out, a failure. She uses drugs; she cuts herself. She has been sent by her despairing adoptive mother to a farm in northern Germany. At first, Alex hates this remote place and the demanding job of looking after the horses. But under the tutelage of Nina, a 30-something taking a break from city life and her partner, Christine, Alex gradually comes to form a bond with the animals in her charge. Then Kathy arrives at the farm to take a holiday, bringing her own, beautiful horse with her. Alex takes an instant dislike to this privileged newcomer. Slowly, though, the barriers between the two are broken down and Kathy finds herself smitten by the streetwise and energetic Alex. The pair starts horsing around, larking about on the mudflats, until one weekend, when they’re alone at the farm, things spiral out of control.

Despite its suggestive title, this multi-part Danish omnibus film is not a work of exploitation. Instead, it presents 20 different short films (back-to-back) on the general theme of Danish women, directed by filmmakers including Krzysztof Zanussi, Monika Treut, Gustav Hamos, David Blair, Vibeke Vogel, Dusan Makavejev, Morten Skallerud and Lars Norgaard. Some dramatic vignettes mix with other comedic ones, but all are offbeat and experimental. The picture includes one animated sequence (by Norgaard).

From the starting point of her admiration for the pioneering Ukrainian filmmaker Kira Muratova (1934-2018), the director poses a question: is cinema made by women really tougher, more violent? Seeking answers, she talks to great contemporary filmmakers like Catherine Breillat, Virginie Despentes, Alice Diop, Céline Sciamma, Ana Lily Amirpour, and Monika Treut, among others. It becomes obvious that the cinema screen is a space for the projection of real social problems and power relations.

A German woman travels to San Francisco to find her mother, but winds up distracted by the sexually flamboyant culture of the city.

Can there be pornography for women? In search of an answer, Esther Gronenborn stumbles through Germany's porn scene like Alice in Wonderland and interviews Beate Uhse, activist Monika Treut from the PorNo movement, and other minor and major figures from the porn industry.

Together with her bisexual friend and manager Stefan, singer Miko is working on a great career that has so far failed to materialize.

DIDN'T DO IT FOR LOVE is a documentary portrait of Eva Norvind, a.k.a. Mistress Ava Taurel, born Eva Johanne Chegodaieva Sakonskaya in Trondheim, Norway. The film follows Eva's many careers, from her time as a showgirl in Paris to becoming Mexico's Marilyn Monroe in the 1960s to establishing herself as New York's most famous dominatrix in the 1980s. Using clips from Norvind's Mexican films, stills from various periods, and interviews with friends, partners and family, Treut's documentary traces Eva's search for the wellspring of her obsessive and dark sexuality.

From feminist director and provocateur Monika Treut comes this eclectic collection of four short documentaries profiling unconventional women. One has Camille Paglia explaining her ways of thinking. One has Annie Sprinkle explaining her approach to performance art, which includes inviting audience members to view her cervix with a speculum. One interview investigates a professional woman's preoccupation with sadomasochism. The fourth documents the life adjustments of an F2M (female-to-male) sex change who looks like a dangerous biker, with slick black hair, a matching motorcycle jacket, and tattoos.

From Go Fish to Paris is Burning to The Watermelon Woman, this festival favorite goes behind the scenes to reveal seven successful lesbian directors. These talented movie-makers enlighten and entertain as they explore their sexual identity, growing up gay, inspirations and techniques, Hollywood vs. Indie, and of course, love and sex, onscreen and off. The conversations are intimate, the topics unlimited, and the clips from their work enthralling! Featuring Cheryl Dunye, Rose Troche, Jennie Livingston, Monika Treut, Maria Maggenti, Su Friedrich and Heather MacDonald.

Vicky, an out-of-work actress, struggling waitress and lesbian has her whole life thrown into turmoil when her father comes from Germany to visit. The main problem is that Vicky has told him she is a successful actress and happily married. She enlists the help of a gay friend to play her husband. Using a large range of characters—gay, lesbian, straight, transsexuals—the film creates a funny and touching view of family dynamics and sexuality.

Pioneering trans writer Max Wolf Valerio talks about his life and experience of transition in this groundbreaking documentary short, one of the very first portraits of a trans man on film, directed and produced by noted filmmaker Monika Treut.

Monika Treut explores the worlds and thoughts of several female to male transgendered individuals. As with Treuts first film, Jungfrauenmaschine, Gendernauts, enters a minority sector of San Fransisco culture. The characters in this film have a lot to complain about, and they do. They are people whose physical appearance (female) does not match their inner sexual identity (male). The subject is pinpointed in the film independant of sexual orientation. Leave your conservative hats at the door, this is going to need your special attention.

Against the backdrop of Taiwan's turbulent presidential elections in 2004, TIGERWOMEN GROW WINGS portrays three women of different generations. Noted opera singer Hsieh Yueh-hsia, internationally renowned writer Li Ang, and 23-year-old film director Chen Yin-jung are featured in this documentary, which focuses on the changes taking place in the lives of women in Taiwan's youthful democracy.

20 years after Gendernauts, Monika Treut seeks out the pioneers of the transgender movement back then to find out how their lives and their activism have evolved, how they have grown into their identities and how their energy continues to have an impact today.

A documentary about the International Queer Film Festival Hamburg that celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2014. The filmmakers have filmed, interviewed, gleaned the archives, watched hours of footage and edited reams of material into a small masterpiece. With its gorgeous shots and sublime soundtrack, the documentary entertainingly brings across both the unique atmosphere and 25-year history, and above all, illuminates the complex mesh that both forms and carries the festival. On another note, the film tries to detect the ways a queer film festival like this has functioned as a platform for unheard voices - and continues to do so in the present. For some people, its sole existence has been a life changing momentum.

Bondage was made from, among other things, footage Monika Treut filmed in New York with women of the LSM(Lesbian Sex Mafia/ Lesbian Sado-Masochists). The statements of Carol form the core of the film. She speaks about her sexuality, her love of bondage, her desire for pain, which she shows in front of the camera. Her talking is interrupted by assembled impressions: intersections and subways pass through a chained female body