Me, Sex & Other People | VAEFF 2026

Turned on. And terrified. Sexuality may be innate, but that doesn’t make it easy to understand. A blend of fiction and documentary, both hyper-personal and abstract, “Me, Sex, and Other People” is a program of films rooted in our constantly varying relationship with pleasure. The answer to the unknowables of sex may feel promised in the validation of others or an ancient temple in the middle of nowhere, but these films offer that our shared uncertainties may just be the connective thread. We cannot control what tantalizes us much less what tantalizes others. Perhaps, that’s what makes it so exciting.

For more information visit: https://videoart.net/me-sex-and-other-people-2026/

Introducing Belle Jolie! directed by Matt McKinzie

This Valentine’s Day, a star is born. A sumptuous love letter to all things red, pink, and divinely feminine, this film documents the debut burlesque performance of “Miss Belle Jolie” at Providence queer bar, The Dark Lady, on February 14, 2024

City/State directed by Julie A. Buck

After a Midtown Manhattan encounter, a woman returns to the crowd, unsure if it should be named.

These Women directed by Wen Zhang

Three women enter a fragmented space where time feels displaced. The film unfolds through their bodies, their nightmares, and their pain. A white box disrupts the fragile balance between them.

69 directed by Leo Butler

Exploring sex and intimacy across sixty-nine scenes and vignettes. Funny, moving and sometimes disturbing.

(0, ∞) directed by Mar Sudac

Gus and Clark — married, late 30s — would like to apply for a mortgage. Their small but sincere hope leads them to take a newly-mandated medical procedure that claims to “verify” sexuality for legal use. The procedure’s brief but brutal trial yields surprising results, prompting Gus and Clark to question the nature of attraction in their rapidly binarizing world.

GoPro HERO directed by Emmeline de Mooij

Follows a woman that refuses to settle for the two single role models available for middle-aged women in order to delay their erasure: the cougar and the MILF. Climbing fences and trespassing enclosures as a form of resistance against the expropriation of the commons, she reaches the hidden sites of ancient carved stone figures of alien-like, bald, old women with emaciated ribs who, in a crouched position, spread open their vulva with both hands; ultimately finding a pre-christian role model that threatens the patriarchal order.

FINE BLACK FRAME directed by Leah Doz

One man explores and defies the definitions of Blackness, queerness, and masculinity in a kinetic self-portrait. A one-man performance shot in-studio with spoken-word text and soundscape merged with entirely improvised movement, born from prompts and collaborative discussion between director and performer.

Event venue

Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, New York, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.

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