Synopsis
We live in a society that wants to keep us away from pain. Aspirin, Paracetamol, Ibuprofen and Voltaren. Children´s playgrounds with rubber mats and bikes with cushioned seats. Please, take my body, wrap it up in cotton and don´t touch it! This film is about people who want to be touched and are not afraid of experimenting with pain. And, in doing so, have lots of sex.Felix Ruckert, dancer and choreographer, meets Mara Morgen, urban sustainability worker not to play with rubber mats but with whips, sex toys and sculptures of Buddha.
So what does Dance, Yoga and S&M have in common? The Schwelle 7, not a basement but Felix´s sun bathed 500 m2 living room, an experimental place where real people play with real violence. While dancing, meditating, at sex parties and in S&M sessions.
"For her documentary Violently Happy, Paola Calvo accompanied the former dancer Felix Ruckert, whose choreographies coused irritation in the art business and who founded the Berlin project »Schwelle 7«. For experiments in BDSM, meditation and creative bodywork, this centre is a protected space for the participants and their notions of sexuality and pain. A courageous, insightful film that shows how liberating the testing of power structures and the acting out of sexual fantasies can be in the game of dominance and submission." (IFFF Dortmund|Köln)