In the Kuna language, “Abya Yala” means “fully mature land” or “the land of vital blood”. Since pre-Columbian times, the term had been used to refer to what we now know as “America”, the moniker imposed on the continent by its European colonizers. In the vast lands of Abya Yala, there exists a broad spectrum of (post)pornographic practices driven by the creative impulse, embodied labor, and passionate activism of diverse individuals and communities, often challenging censorship, moral panics, and threats from a conservative, religious, and colonial morality.

Honoring this tradition, this program brings together eight short films produced in the vast southern lands of Abya Yala. A landscape of creations depicting the myriad layers, languages and aesthetics used by present-day filmmakers from what is known as “Latin America”. We refer to them as “critical pornographies”, as they are cinematographic works that explore the explicit languages of sexuality, reflecting aesthetically and politically on their representation practices, production systems, and distribution strategies, with a situated sense in the South. Films that use the languages of explicit cinema to narrate stories, shout manifestos, recite poems, visualize songs, and portray lives, communities, and struggles.

This program is just a tiny extract from the universe of moans, fluids, vibrant bodies, and sexual politics from a part of the global South and by no means intends to represent it in its richness and diversity. It includes representations of anticlerical actions, video art, documentary, BDSM, street protest, erotic manifestos, ecosexuality, music videos, and dance. Our South is about pleasure, flavor, and resistance. Come and join us!