Juni
| Wo. 03 | | Bewaren of hoe te leven |
| Do. 04 | | No Pride in Genocide – Queer Cinema for Palestine |
| Vr. 05 | | Echoes from the Amazon |
| Za. 06 | | VHS Archive Jam Session |
| Za. 13 | | Queering Albion: God’s Own Country + two short films |
| Zo. 14 | | Pierre |
| Do. 18 | | Working Progress: Filmmakers’ Community Event |
| Vr. 19 | | Cavia in Concert: The General with live score by the Joost Buis Trio |
| Za. 20 | | Mourning Becomes a Muse: A Report on the Party and the Guests |
| Zo. 21 | | Chorras |
| Do. 25 | | Mourning Becomes a Muse: Murdering the Devil |
| Vr. 26 | | The Devil |
| Zo. 28 | | Kissable Screens: Coming of Age – By Porn Film Festival Amsterdam |
Woensdag 3 juni, 20:30
DOCU
Bewaren of hoe te leven (Keeping & Saving or How to Live) + Q&A
Digna Sinke | 2018 | NL | 85’ | EN subtitles
NL Zolang ze zich kan herinneren bewaart regisseuse Digna Sinke allerlei dingen, variërend van suikerzakjes tot oude kranten. Samen met haar moeder (92) probeert ze te achterhalen waar die behoefte vandaan komt. De bewaarde dingen blijken tijdmachines die herinneringen boven brengen die ver weg zijn geraakt. Maar er is iets aan het veranderen. De digitalisering heeft een heel andere manier van leven mogelijk gemaakt. Digna gaat op zoek naar de nieuwe mens, bij wie het niet meer om materiële dingen gaat, maar om ervaringen: digitale nomaden en minimalisten die alleen nog een paspoort, bankpasje, laptop en telefoon bezitten.
Digna Sinke zal de vertoning bijwonen en na afloop van de film in gesprek gaan met het publiek.
EN For as long as she can remember director Digna Sinke has been keeping all kinds of things, from sugar sachets to old newspapers. Together with her 92-year-old mother she tries to find out where this need comes from. The kept things turn out to be time machines recalling memories that had all but faded. But something is changing. Digitization has created the possibility of a completely different way of life. Digna goes in search of the new human, who no longer cares about material things, but about experiences: digital nomads and minimalists who own nothing but a passport, a bank card, a laptop computer and a smartphone.
Digna Sinke will attend the screening and join the audience for a discussion after the film.
Donderdag 4 juni, 20:30
PRIDE
No Pride in Genocide
Queer Cinema for Palestine
Various | 2022-2026 | various | 76’ | EN subtitles
NL Samen met Queer Cinema for Palestine viert Filmhuis Cavia Palestijnse stemmen en betuigt het queer solidariteit met Palestijnen en hun bevrijdingsstrijd. Cavia werkt deze Pride-maand samen met Queer Cinema for Palestine om een gezamenlijk programma te presenteren dat zich richt op de wereld van queer Palestijnse en geallieerde kunstenaars, in historisch Palestina, in de diaspora en daarbuiten. MEER→
EN Alongside Queer Cinema for Palestine, Filmhuis Cavia celebrates Palestinian voices and expresses queer solidarity with Palestinians and their liberation struggle. Cavia has partnered with Queer Cinema for Palestine this Pride month to bring a shared programme focusing on the world of queer Palestinian and allied artists, in historic Palestine, across the diaspora and beyond. MORE→
Vrijdag 5 juni, 20:30
CONTEMPORARY
Echoes from the Amazon
Various | 2021-2025 | Brazil, France | 70’ | EN subtitles
NL Van de Transamazônica-snelweg tot de overstroomde oevers van Belo Monte en de ruige stromingen van de Rio das Mortes. Drie vrouwelijke filmmakers doorbreken de traditionele documentaireconventies met animatie, sciencefiction en live performance om vorm te geven aan wat door de winning van grondstoffen in het Amazonegebied tot zwijgen wordt gebracht: de queer geesten, verdronken stemmen en drijvende brokstukken die herinneren aan wat vernietigd is. Na de films volgt een discussie. MEER→
EN From the Transamazônica highway to the flooded banks of Belo Monte and the rough currents of the Rio das Mortes, three women filmmakers disrupt documentary with animation, sci-fi and live performance to give form to what extraction silences in the Amazon forest: the queer spirits, drowned voices, and drifting debris that remember what was destroyed. The films will be followed by a discussion. MORE→
Zaterdag 6 juni, 16:00
SPECIAL
VHS Archive Jam Session
EN Over the past forty years, Cavia has built up a wonderfully chaotic VHS archive: festival submissions, homemade tape compilations, experimental films, commercial releases, underground oddities, and even some adult titles, all sitting side by side on the shelves. Together they show how VHS not only brought cinema into living rooms, but also made it possible for low-budget and far-flung productions to travel, circulate, and find audiences outside official circuits.
This event is an experiment in bringing that archive back to life. Instead of a fixed program, the afternoon begins with a one-hour collective exploration session. The audience is invited to climb the archive ladder and explore the shelves, selecting tapes that catch their attention through a title, a cover, or sheer curiosity. In small groups, participants can then watch their chosen tapes using one of the many TVs with VHS players installed throughout the space. Together, we decide which tape fragments should make it onto the big screen. The session evolves into a “jam session” screening shaped in real time by the people in the cinema room.
Tickets: Donation-based or Cineville
Zaterdag 13 juni, 21:00
PRIDE
Queering Albion
God’s Own Country + two short films
Various | 2017-2020 | UK, US, Ireland | 131’ | English
NL Te vaak blijven queer verhalen in de Britse en Ierse filmwereld beperkt tot stedelijke vertellingen over een zelfgekozen familie, illegale activiteiten en een algemene tegenstelling tussen moderne en traditionele cultuur. Hoewel dit een groot deel van de queer gemeenschap vertegenwoordigt, sluit het degenen uit die 'achterblijven'; degenen die hun band met het land niet willen verruilen voor hun band met hun geliefden. Dit programma onderzoekt de nuances, de pijn en de vreugde die queer mensen ervaren op het platteland van de Britse eilanden.
EN Too often the inclusion of queer narratives in the British and Irish film landscape are isolated to urban tales of found family, illicit activity and a general modern vs traditional culture dichotomy. While this represents vast populations of the queer society, it excludes the ‘ones left behind’; those that don’t want to trade their relationship with the land for their relationship with those they love. This programme investigates the nuance, pain and joy that exists for queer people in rural places in the British Isles.
Landline
Matt Houghton | 2018 | UK | 12’ | English
EN In 2010, a chaplain from Cheshire set up a helpline for gay farmers. Landline journeys into the world of the people who called. A Londoner of mixed British and Indian descent, Matt Houghton is a BAFTA-winning filmmaker who makes films about outsiders and the unheard. His work experiments with form, often treading the line between fact and fiction.
Lambing Season
Jeannie Donohoe | 2013 | Ireland, US | 15’ | English
EN On a sheep farm full of secrets, nature has its way of delivering the truth. Jeannie Donohoe’s passion for humanist storytelling has paved her path from a South Bronx classroom to an Irish sheep farm to basketball courts with NBA champions.
God’s Own Country
Francis Lee | 2017 | UK | 104’ | English
EN Farmer's lad Johnny is struggling to choose between family duty and finding his own path, until the arrival of a migrant worker propels him on a transformative emotional journey. Director Francis Lee was brought up on his parents’ farm on the Pennine Hills in Yorkshire. After training at Rose Bruford College he worked as an actor in theatre, television and film. Years later he started to write and direct his own short films, mediating on different aspects of life in the area he grew up in. God’s Own Country was Francis’ first feature film, premiering at Sundance and Edinburgh International Film Festival, this quiet, moving rumination on loneliness and newfound intimacy was heralded as “the first great film of the Brexit era”. This film's authenticity, which is both tender and brutal, displays a juxtaposition of landscape and emotion, and centrally explores the question of what it means to be a man, to be queer, and to be a person of the land.
Zondag 14 juni, 20:30
CLASSIC
Pierre
Jan Decorte | 1976 | Belgium | 90’ | EN subtitles
NL De eerste speelfilm van theatermaker Jan Decorte beslaat een dag en een nacht in het eenzame leven van een Brusselse gemeentebediende. Pierre woont samen met zijn moeder in een ouderwetse woning in een wegkwijnende volksbuurt. Elke ochtend begeeft Pierre zich met de tram naar zijn werk in het gemeentehuis, waar hij tijdens de middagpauze luistert naar de grappen van zijn collega’s. De enige hoop om van zijn verveling en frustraties af te geraken is gevestigd op een meisje van de turnclub. Als op een avond zijn moeder het huis uit is, nodigt hij haar uit bij hem thuis.
“Een mens is voor een ander mens een onontwarbaar geheim. De uiteindelijke betekenis en de motieven van de meeste handelingen die hij stelt blijven voor hem verborgen. Hoe staat het dan met de kennis, met de mogelijkheid tot kennis van andermans motieven? Dient men het bestaan zelf van motieven niet te betwijfelen?” – Jan Decorte
EN Theater director Jan Decorte’s first feature film spans a day and a night in the lonely life of a Brussels municipal employee. Pierre lives with his mother in an old-fashioned house in a declining working-class neighborhood. Every morning, Pierre takes the tram to work at city hall, where he listens to his colleagues’ jokes during his lunch break. His only hope of escaping his boredom and frustrations lies with a girl from the gymnastics club. One evening, when his mother is out, he invites her over to his place.
“One person is an inscrutable mystery to another. The ultimate meaning and motives behind most of the actions a person takes remain hidden from him. What, then, of knowledge—of the possibility of knowing another person’s motives? Should we not question the very existence of motives?” – Jan Decorte
Donderdag 18 juni, 20:30
SPECIAL
Working Progress: Filmmakers’ Community Event
EN Working Progress is a series of screenings that enable filmmakers to present their unfinished works to meet audiences with the aim of receiving feedback, generating a conversation and network for filmmakers and other film people! Filmmakers and works are chosen through an open call on a monthly basis. For interested parties, please email: workingprogress.ams@gmail.com
The screening will present 3 work in progress films or audiovisual works, with each filmmaker or artist receiving up to 30 minutes to present their unfinished work and talk to the audience about the work. More details about the selected projects to follow in the week before the screening.
Entrance: Donation-based
Vrijdag 19 juni, 20:00
SPECIAL
Cavia in Concert
The General (with live score by the Joost Buis Trio) at Nassaukerk
Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton | 1926 | USA | 79’ | EN subtitles
NL Na een instant klassieker te zijn geworden met de eerste twee uitverkochte edities, keert Cavia in Concert, onze reeks film- en muziekvoorstellingen die in samenwerking met Podium Nassau in de prachtige zaal van de Nassaukerk worden georganiseerd, voor de zomervakantie terug. In deze editie, die plaatsvindt tijdens de viering van het 100-jarig bestaan van de Nassaukerk, presenteren we opnieuw een legendarische film uit 1926: The General van Buster Keaton! MEER→
EN After becoming an instant classic with its first two sold out editions, Cavia in Concert, our series of film and music performances organized in the amazing hall of the Nassaukerk in collaboration with Podium Nassau, comes back once again before the summer break. In this edition, taking place during the celebrations for the Nassaukerk’s 100th anniversary, we bring you another legendary film from 1926: The General, by Buster Keaton! MORE→
Zaterdag 20 juni, 20:30
CLASSIC
Mourning Becomes a Muse
A Report on the Party and the Guests
Jan Němec | 1966 | Czechoslovakia | 71’ | EN subtitles
EN A small group of bourgeois guests head for a birthday party of a prominent figure. As they go through the woods and have a picnic, they are suddenly surrounded by a bunch of suspicious strangers. When one guest suddenly leaves, a strange and disturbing manhunt unfolds through the woods, led by the host’s entourage, a hunting dog, and eventually many of the guests themselves.
Twice banned and now regarded as one of the most important and controversial films of the Czech New Wave, it was the second feature collaboration between married director Jan Němec and Ester Krumbachová. Starring many prominent Czech intellectuals and cultural figures of the time, its unsettling allegory of totalitarianism and conformity proved far too provocative for state censors. A daring, dark satire adapted from a short story by Ester Krumbachová.
'Mourning Becomes a Muse' reconsiders Ester Krumbachová not as a figure lingering at the edges of the Czech New Wave, but as one of its most daring and essential architects. Blacklisted by the Communist regime and pushed to the margins of film history. A screenwriter, costume and set designer, and director, Krumbachová infused the movement with its surreal visual extravagance through collaborations with Věra Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš and Jan Němec.
Zondag 21 juni, 20:30
CONTEMPORARY
Chorras + Q&A
Mario Monzó, Lourdes Porras, Marcos Valiente | 2025 | Spain | 82’ | EN subtitles
EN In a small town in Extremadura, Spain, terrible events are taking place: someone has been going around cutting off wieners. Sergeant Montaña, head of the local Guardia Civil station, is facing the longest and most vein-filled case she has ever seen in her life. Luckily, or unfortunately, a new and mysterious blind detective arrives, and they will somehow have to work together.
Chorras is a rural surrealist mystery comedy filmed and produced entirely by the inhabitants of Acehúche, a small Spanish village. It is a rare example of authentic collective filmmaking, in which the entire village came together to make a movie about someone cutting off penises.
Director Mario Monzó will join us after the screening for a Q&A about the making of the film.
Donderdag 25 juni, 20:30
CLASSIC
Mourning Becomes a Muse
Murdering the Devil
Ester Krumbachová | 1970 | Czechoslovakia | 72’ | EN subtitles
EN A long-neglected gem of feminist satire, the only feature solely directed by Ester Krumbachová. Murdering the Devil transforms domestic ritual into a darkly funny exploration of gender, loneliness, and power. Set almost entirely inside an ornate Prague apartment, the film follows an unnamed middle-aged woman known only as “Her,” who prepares lavish dinners for a former crush, the gluttonous Mr. Devil. As he devours endless meals while quoting Freud and Nietzsche to excuse his chauvinism, their nightly encounters grow increasingly absurd and grotesque.
“A woman in the kitchen was, once again, just a woman in the kitchen, not an inquisitive female Faust.”
'Mourning Becomes a Muse' reconsiders Ester Krumbachová not as a figure lingering at the edges of the Czech New Wave, but as one of its most daring and essential architects. Blacklisted by the Communist regime and pushed to the margins of film history. A screenwriter, costume and set designer, and director, Krumbachová infused the movement with its surreal visual extravagance through collaborations with Věra Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš and Jan Němec.
Vrijdag 26 juni, 20:30
CLASSIC
The Devil (Diabel)
Andrzej Żuławski | 1972 | Poland | 125’ | EN subtitles
EN Through the lens of one of the most controversial and esoteric Polish filmmakers, Andrzej Żuławski, The Devil was born as an allegory of the contemporary political situation in Poland. Once finalised, it was censored for 16 years by the Polish government. It is considered one of the preeminent artistic portraits of the Republic's downfall and the nation's spiritual crisis.
The Devil is a hedonistic philosophical treatise about the condition of a society martyred in a romantic hysterical madness. As a film that embraces the notion of rooted evil in humans, it was reviewed as “taboo-shattering debauchery”. It follows the young nobleman, Jakub, who is freed from captivity by a stranger in the year of 1793 when the Prussian army starts to invade Greater Poland. In return for freedom, the stranger demands that Jakub should cleanse the world of evil, which grows into a never-ending crime and lunacy.
To sum up, Żuławski crafts a uniquely singular political costume drama, while his trademark, staggering depictions of madness once again shine through, mirroring the sheer intensity of critically acclaimed Possession.
Zondag 28 juni, 14:00
SEX-POSITIVE
Kissable Screens
Coming of Age – by Porn Film Festival Amsterdam
Various | 73’
EN June is Pride Month, commemorating the Stonewall uprising. The Stonewall riots began in the early hours of June 28, 1969, when patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York City's Greenwich Village resisted a police raid, sparking several days of protests. This uprising is widely considered the catalyst for the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, leading directly to the first Pride march on June 28, 1970. To honour the Queer history with celebrations, reflection, and activism, Kissable Screens, a monthly sex positive screening of Cavia, will recall films that were presented at Porn Film Festival Amsterdam 2026.
Stories of transition. Stories of becoming. This block explores thresholds: the before and after moments that crack something open. Coming of age isn’t bound to youth or tied to outdated ideas of purity, nor to a mainstream porn category or religious initiation. It can happen at any time, in countless forms. These films trace self-discovery, sexual awakenings, escapes from what was, returns to the self and the unstable in-between spaces where identity is still forming.
alt.sex.fetish.robots Zed Sheng | 2025 | USA, Thailand | 5'
Vudhi K, a Thai ASFR practitioner, recounts the process of transformation — and the moment his fetish first took hold. A memory, a primal scene, a mercurial awakening. The drag of a brush against skin blurs the boundary between subject and object, drone and human.
Knots of Self | Laura Ropes | 2025 | Austria | 16'
Nad, a queer non-binary client, is bound by Magma in an intimate dance of trust and desire, where vulnerability and strength delicately intertwine with spanking, pleasure and pain.
Feverish | Fabienne Garçonne and Jamal Phoenix | 2025 | Switzerland | 5'
Jamal remembers the first porn he made over a decade ago, a hot and poetic masturbation scene. He recreates that film, reflecting on who he was and how he has grown since then, looking back lovingly at an homage for the fierce femme he used to be.
Pillowcore | Nisa East & Rosie Allways | 2025 | Australia | 10'
In the neon grime of a skeezy motel room, a woman arrives with nothing but a suitcase. When her anticipated company never shows, camp collides with kink, bending art into smut and smut into art as she finds her own way to pass the night.
In All the Rooms We Met | Bonaventure Tain | 2024 | Malaysia | 14'
Over the years, a documentary filmmaker and a porn actor met in various rooms, left, and reunited, and now ended up in a room filled with lush greenery, documenting a world where reality and fiction intertwine.
Our Joyful Endings | Lucie Babayan & La fille Renne | 2025 | France | 6'
Our Joyful Endings follows the diary of a trans-masculine person who sees his own and others’ views of his body change during his transition. Between desire, apprehension and questioning. From there, comfort grows with people who share this experience.
The Chemo Darkroom | Harvey Rabbit | 2018 | Germany | 17'
Sex, pain, the unknown. The Chemo Darkroom is a ritual film about recovering the sexual self after chemotherapy.