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Lesbian Porn Film “Airport” (1994) by Manuela Kay and Silke Dunkhorst

1. April 2022

In 2021, “Lesbian” turned out to be the third most searched keyword on Pornhub, one of the biggest and best-known websites for porn. Yet, not all search results for Lesbian porn are exclusively catered towards Lesbian and Bisexual women. A lot of those erotic scenes are produced for a straight-male gaze. Even amongst heterosexual women such movies tend to be popular.

The production of “Airport” by Silke Dunkhorst and Manuela Kay disrupted this gaze as early as 1994, making the movie a queer milestone. Today, the film is considered to be one of the first porn films from Lesbians for Lesbians in Germany. The production was funded by the directors themselves, and launched at the women’s film festival “Feminale” during the autumn months of 1994 in Cologne.

The movie follows four stewardesses from “Bad Girl Airlines” to their layover in Berlin. Rather sooner than later, the airport bathroom is repurposed, and the stewardesses shorten their wait with some group sex. Be it during fingering, fisting or kissing, the climax of their ecstasy is reached without a doubt. With strap-ons, dildos and a polaroid camera, the first stop is checked-off, leading them to the U-Club in East Berlin. The viewers are allowed to experience some soft bondage scenes, since the rougher footage from this shoot didn’t make the cut. Last but not least, the group is celebrating their work and the community with a round of applause. Back in the airplane, they take a final look at the polaroid pictures of the successful pit stop.

During the screening, the Lesbian community showed a primarily positive reaction to the film. The only evidence hinting towards unfulfilled desires on the audience’s side were the multiple requests for more close-ups and oral sex scenes. Didn’t the staff of Bad Girl Airlines promise to satisfy each and every wish of their passengers? Bad Girls!

Director Manuela Kay highlights the agency of the Lesbian, sexual subjects in “Airplanes”, setting it apart from other, more usual porn from heterosexual makers. This is reflected in the entire aesthetic and erotic of the movie, be it in the way that the sexual partners come closer to each other, via the musical accompaniment during the club scenes, or the act of polaroid photography, allowing the participants to capture their intimate moments themselves during the act.

During various workshops of the SMU, Nils Meyer presented “Airport”, among many other queer porn films, to the erotic-loving participants of the seminars. With regards to the huge enthusiasm towards the museum’s porn collection, with ca. 3.000 flicks ranging in timespan between 1970s and the early 2000s, the Schwule Museum teamed up with the Club Culture Houze to organize a series of films about queer-feminist desires. The kickoff will be on May 28 with Manuela Kay’s and Silke Dunkhorst’s “Airport”, as well as two movies by Ulrike Zimmermann. More information will follow soon on our website.