Marit Ostberg is a filmmaker and visual artist from Sweden. Her visual world has been described as uncompromising – uncompromisingly current and uncompromisingly sexy.
How did you start directing queer feminist porn?
I was asked to make a short porn for the Swedish feminist-porn-DVD compilation called “Dirty Diaries”. I was excited to do something that I have never done before and that I never could have imagined that I would do. Back then, I was working as a journalist and wanted to become a writer. I had no experience in film, however because all the films in “Dirty Diares” were supposed to be shot by a mobile phone, I thought that I could do it. After making my first film I found it fun to make porn. I wouldn’t say it was easy, I’ve dealt with many difficulties and I still do, but as a writer I was struggling a lot with what I call “the good girl complex”. I had too high expectations on myself and it limited me. Suddenly, I found myself in an unknown and forbidden world. No one was there to tell me what to do or not to do or no mentors that I was looking up to, no superego. It was a significant change in my creative work and personal life.
After watching your documentary “Sisterhood”, the way the three characters touch each other really affected me, say, changed my perception towards the moments in the act of having sex. Besides that, in “When We Are Together We Can Be Everywhere” from the exhibition “What is queer today is not queer tomorrow” in nGbk Berlin, it seemed you and the crew enjoy a lot whilst shooting…
I am happy to hear about your change of perception, even if I exactly don’t know what you mean – what has changed for you. But yes, we had a lot of fun shooting these porn movies. The short “When We Are Together We Can Be Everywhere” from the exhibition “What is queer today is not queer tomorrow” in nGbk Berlin is an extract from a longer film that I worked on for many years now. Hopefully, it will be released at the end of this year even if it’s hard to find enough of time to edit. It’s a porn film but also a film that documents the process of making it; about my friends that act in it, about the camera women and about me as a film maker. Making porn is reminiscent of all the relations in everyday life, for me. It is extremely important to work with communication and trust. It is important to be able to face yourself and others as a whole – to understand and take care of both strong and weak sides. All these things are what I both managed to reach and to fail during the 6 years that I have been making films. That is reminiscent of the fact that every day life needs are different from day to day in terms of relations. One day we are strong and another day we feel vulnerable. As a director, it can be hard to catch all these different needs.
From which aspects do you criticize queer feminist porn practice?
As one has to criticize every practice that s/he is involved, one has to be able to criticize queer feminist porn, as well. Just because something has the label as queer and feminist doesn’t mean it is perfect. But I also think that there must be room to make mistakes, so that we can learn from them to develop and progress. For example, I get criticism about making porn with white privileged bodies. We can try to make our best and we shouldn’t be afraid of criticism. This is legitimated criticism and talking about it makes me go deeper to understand who I am and where I come from. My little queer bubble in Berlin and Stockholm are quite privileged and one has to have a privileged position to make porn as an empowering practice – to take the clothes of and fuck in front of the camera out of a feminist belief without worrying about the consequences is a luxury.
Is there a danger of repeating the tenets of heteronormativity in queer porn as well?
There is always danger of repeating heteronormativity. It all depends where, how and who is watching. Often, actually at the majority of the screenings of my porns all over the world, from Mexico to Taiwan, there are some people (almost only middle age straight men) that say they don’t find my films any different from mainstream porn. The first time that happened I got really provocated. But now, a few years later, I don’t feel as threatened by this kind of comment. I can’t take that experience from them. Instead I keep on talking about the importance of the production process in queer feminist porn. Even if a straight man is reading the bodies on the screen in a mainstream way – he can’t take away the experiences and the driving forces that the film was made from.
How do you foresee the future of queer porn?
As everything else that expands it will go into different directions, it already did. From super activist to super mainstream. There are queer feminist porn film producers that can live a good life out of making queer porn. This doesn’t meen it’s bad, on the contrary I find it great what they are doing. (see Shine Louise Houston or Courtny Trouble). But when the word “queer” gets too commodified, or when the commercial queer porn gets too repitative (until now there are still so many new things in queer porn that has never been done before) “queer” will very likely be exchanged by another more radical word by the people who wanna make more activist and less commersial porn.
Kaos GL from Turkey is in the list of your inspirations in your website. What did take your attention about KAOS GL considering other LGBTI associations?
On my webpage I list artists and organizations I have been in contact with through my different jobs – as a filmmaker, journalist and activist. I got in contact with KAOS GL when I was chief editor of a LGBT-magazine in Sweden (Kom Ut, the membership magazin of RFSL – the national organization that works with LGBT-rights). LGBT-activists in Turkey are working hard and do an amazing work, therefore I admire them. Just as other activists all around the word…
You have directed the video of “Full of Fire” by The Knife. Is there another music video in the near future?
I am finishing a music video right now. It’s a song by the upcoming musician Hiya Wal âalam from Tunisia and I am very happy about our cooperation. I also work as a VJ and right now I am shooting a lot to put together a new set of visuals for an exciting project together with Paula Temple’s Noise Manifesto and Decon Recon.
The lyrics of “Full of Fire” will be my question: “When you are full of fire, what is the object you desire?”
When I meet, listen to and learn from activists from all over the world. When I am close to brave and strong people who also knows what it is to be weak and afraid.
Do you have a dream project?
I am in my dream projects. I shoot my dreams. My dream is to have more money so I don’t have to ask myself every month how I am going to pay my rent or have to divide my time between money jobs and film projects. I don’t mind working in a bar (one of the things I do for money), it can be fun and inspiring, but also tiring and hard on the body.