My Porny Valentine

Porny screenings, porny market, queer porn gazes...

Ooooh yes, it’s a date. Let's undress the genre of all its crappy clichés, by dishing up a delicious selection of high quality porn — think ethics, aesthetics, feminist, queer.

more info and film tickets soon-ish <3

18:00 doors, bar & porny market (untill 22:00)
18:30 shortfilms
20:30 break
21:00 feature film
00:00 bar closes

screenings curated by Cilu Dièl, in collaboration with the Brussels Porn Film Festival.

Navigating the dating scene today feels increasingly daunting, fueled by anxiety and social expectations. What does it mean to date someone in 2025? What does it mean to have a Valentine?

Love, and the reproduction of heteronormative ways of bonding, has become the motto of certain currents within LGBTQIA+ activism, reclaiming the right to marry, have children, and, above all, to love. But what about when we just want to fuck?

With this special programme, we try to answer that question: where does sex fit in — mixed with love (or simply desire) — outside of normative standards? What does it mean to have a Valentine, for us, today?

You’ll see spaces of resistance taking shape as responses to the world’s harshness: lesbian bars, rituals of reappropriating one’s own body and desire… The city is ours to occupy with our fantasies! Porn can be an arena for experimentation — a space where dreams and desires can be tested, free from society’s moral constraints. Whether in front of or behind the camera, the queer porn gaze opens up infinite possibilities to reclaim dissident fantasies.

And what about the power dynamics present in every relationship? Are we dismantling them, shifting them, creating new territories where reality itself serves our pleasure? Definitely. And let’s not forget that sex work remains a central part of many dissident biographies. Step into the world of Black trans sex workers in New York: their dreams, struggles, and everyday hustle unfolding between New York and Georgia.

Dear queer, this Valentine’s is for you to cum!
See you on February 14 <3

about

Cilu Dièl
Cilu directs short films set in strange, whimsical, yet often unvirtuous worlds. Cofounder of the Brussels Porn Film Festival and part of SNAP!, she sees artistic expressions of sexuality as both a radical reclaiming of power and a legitimate art form.

Brussels Porn Film Festival
Established with the purpose of reducing the stigma around pornography and acknowledging its significant role in the history of cinema, the Brussels Porn Film Festival stands as Belgium’s first festival dedicated to alternative pornography. As the most widely consumed and produced audiovisual genre in the world, pornography exists simultaneously in plain view and concealed behind closed doors, avoiding public debate outside of moralistic standards. A rich countercultural phenomenon, contemporary porn embraces new forms of expression, serving as a potent political and creative tool for marginalized groups. Feminists, LGBTQIA+, sex workers, and other minorities choose to direct their cameras toward their own bodies, creating a presence typically overlooked by mainstream media. Heading to its 5th edition, the festival presents a diverse programme of film screenings, a national and international competition, panel discussions, market, workshops and parties, connecting Brussels with the latest expressions of human deep connection.