Elsbeth Fraanje | NETHERLANDS
55 min ⋅ Full Subtitles
Co-presented by Good For Her
In partnership with Disability After Dark
Evelien, spastic from birth and with merely disappointing sexual experiences in her pocket, is taking the first steps on her quest for intimacy. After a lifetime of mostly clinical forms of touch, she sets out to claim sexual pleasure as part of her own experience. During this personal journey, she discovers new parts of herself and her body, as she gradually opens up to the needs and desires she has been suppressing all her life, having been told sexual touch shouldn’t matter due to her disability. Evelien’s burgeoning curiosity and fervour clash with a deep-rooted low self-esteem, and societal shaming. Still, she confronts herself, her own biases, and considers meeting with an intimate care sex worker. “Is it true that sex makes you more complete?” she wonders. Sexual Healing is a film about the necessity of intimate, human contact for every human being and how complex sexual power can be to claim if sex is not part of the conversation.
DIRECTOR BIO
Elsbeth Fraanje
Elsbeth Fraanje is a creative documentary director, researcher and programmer. CBC labeled her documentary Sexual Healing as one of the 9 films not to miss at Hot Docs 2022. In her author driven, often stylistic films she shows compelling stories of “ordinary” people and how these reflect on daily society. Indirectly and mildly comical, she puts down serious questions about our own life's struggles.
Her work is shown at international festivals (Hot Docs, IDFA, CPH:DOX, Ji.hlava, Krakow, Docville) and on TV. The documentary Highway Confessions (2017) won the Dutch Academy Award. In addition to her work as a director, Elsbeth is a curator and programme maker at European Short Film Festival Go Short. She is an alumnus of the IDFA Academy and Kids & Docs Workshop.
