How do people use their creative skills to bring intimacy and sexuality to light? In the short film need, Jonnah Bron explores desire, consent, intimacy and sexuality. People wander through various rooms, where they watch, meet, touch and exchange words. For Jonnah Bron, the aesthetics in images and sound are a way to share her queer vision, artistic style and ideas about safety and communication with a broader audience. Our moderator will discuss this with Bron and other artists to reflect together on how they address themes of intimacy and sexuality in their different practices.
About the speakers
Jonnah Bron (1994, Netherlands) is a photographer and self-taught filmmaker based in Amsterdam. Out of a great need to be better represented as a queer person, Bron began to focus her camera on her loved ones and herself. Her interest lies mainly in making intimate portraits and everything that comes with that. Bron does this by exploring subjects like sexuality, identity and relationships.
Cece Dao is a Vietnamese internet personality based in Rotterdam. Her work is dedicated to raising awareness around gender-based violence, sexual wellbeing an array of related topics. She is currently working on her research on how queer people in Rotterdam use social media during the COVID pandemic to express their sexual identity, connect with their community, advocate for sexual liberation and stay informed. Cece stars in ‘need’ as Aida.
Berat Bebek/ Bebe (they, them) is a non-binary actor, artist, creator, performer, organizer, serotonin source, social butterfly and a professional fat. While studying chemistry at Bogazici University, along with socio-political experience from their social circles, they started to be more visible as an activist and as a queer person. Within their previous experiences from theater, they started to lean more into performance art and drag and came across with other disciplines such as ceramic, painting, and embroidery. Falling down so many times throughout their life, they’re familiar with the feeling of the ground and now refusing to accept the norm of ‘being obliged to suffer’ towards queer people and they believe it is time to reflect, retake and recreate.
Mila Vanilla is a young business owner, nude model, (sexual) taboo breaker, and feminine pleasure activist. She advocates for inclusivity in porn by sharing her story about her self love journey. By posting her personal and sensual content online she is opening up the conversation about body image and the fight against the sexualization of women’s bodies.
Taneesha Sijmons is a sensuality coach, a relationship & intimacy coach and an erotic artist & performer who empowers and guides souls through the deeply transformative concepts and arts of sensuality, intimacy, love, body work, movement and eroticism in their journey towards deepening the relationship with themselves, their partner(s), their bodies, sexuality and sensual self-expression.
Inge den Adel (she/her) focuses on the body, movement, intimacy and human connections, in her work, study and personal life. Inge is the producer of need, a short film about intimacy by Jonnah Bron that premiered in January 2023 in the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. Besides dramaturgy, she is developing herself in the role of intimacy coordinator.
About need
need is a sensual film about a world of sexual freedom and safety. Images, sound and movement coalesce in a luscious choreography. need, a stylish film by Jonnah Bron, is about consent, desire, intimacy and experiment. People wander through various rooms, where they meet, explore and touch one another.
