Skip to content

Blue Movies: Sex and Sexuality on Screen

When

Event Status

From Wetlands to My Mistress, MIFF 14 is filled with risqué business. But the question is, how do you write ‘meaningful’ sex on screen in a way that isn’t meaningless sleaze?

Writer and journalist Clem Bastow talks to Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), Ana Kokkinos (Head On, Blessed), respected academic Barbara Creed, and American directors Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behavior) and Joe Swanberg (Happy Christmas, Drinking Buddies, MIFF 13) about using the sex scene to actually say something new.

Co-presented with the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Featuring

Desiree Akhavan

Iranian-American filmmaker Desiree Akhavan is the writer/director/star of Appropriate Behavior, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. She is also the co-creator and star of the award-winning web series The Slope, a comedy that follows a pair of superficial, homophobic lesbians in love.... Read more

Barbara Creed

Barbara Creed is Professor of Screen Studies in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Her areas of research cover feminist and psychoanalytic theory, the cinema of human rights and film and the animal. Her books include: The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psych... Read more

Joe Swanberg

Joe Swanberg is an American independent filmmaker and actor. His films include Happy Christmas and Drinking Buddies.

Stephan Elliott

Entering the film industry aged 17, Stephan became a director at age 26 with the Cannes 1993 entrant Frauds, starring Phil Collins and Hugo Weaving. He has since directed films including The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Welcome to Woop Woop. His 2nd feature was written in 14 days... Read more

Clem Bastow

Clem Bastow’s debut nonfiction book Late Bloomer was published in July 2021. Her writing appears regularly in The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Big Issue. She co-wrote and co-presented the 2017 ABC podcast Behind The Belt, a documentary “deep di... Read more

Ana Kokkinos

Acclaimed writer/director Ana Kokkinos’ career spans film and TV. Ana’s latest feature film Blessed (2009) premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival and was selected for Main Competition at San Sebastian (where it won the Jury prize for Best Screenplay). Blessed was in Official Sele... Read more

Location

The Cube, Australian Centre for the Moving Image

Federation Square Flinders Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

More details

Stay up to date with our upcoming events and special announcements by subscribing to The Wheeler Centre's mailing list.

Privacy Policy

The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.