Sex Worker Movie Marathon at The Roxie


3117 16th Street 11:30 am-11:30 PM
San Francisco Bay Area Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival
(Saturday - May 25th, 2019)

 
11:30 AM
Testimonies: The Complexity of Empowerment
This show presents discourses within a variety of sex worker communities, focused on performers. Presenting new and old analysis, justifications, courageous stances, explorations of privilege and sex workers pondering their roles within various communities.
 
 
Sisters of the Night
Dornel Edwards
(11:25- 2018, New Zealand)
"Sisters of The Night" goes inside the lives of two Auckland sister strippers sharing insights about their relationship as sisters who strip together. The documentary explores the dynamics between siblings and provides a window into the lifestyle and issues of being a stripper in New Zealand's sex culture.
 
 
Kitchen Talk
Reclaiming Our Image
(5:20-2019,US)
A group of 12 Black, Indigenous and People of Color in porn gather to create self-directed content. "During the shoot we ended up gathered in the kitchen crying, laughing and holding each other. Here is an excerpt of that conversation."
 
 
The Job
Ksenia Kravtsova
(29:29 - 2019, Ukraine)
Three heroines, three stories ... Three frank stories from the life of sex workers.
What is the danger hidden in this profession? What difficulties do they have to overcome in their path?
Three women tell about their work, about the first experiences, and even about their first love, as they discuss the essence of their profession.
 
 
Angel & Opal
Jack Truman
(06:20 - 2019, USA)
"Angel and Opal" is a short documentary film about 2 burlesque legends talking about the golden years of burlesque. Burlesque legends Satan's Angel and Opal Dockery share memories from their dancing days in the 60's and '70's. A hilarious, eye-opening, shocking underground short film, ANGEL & OPAL opens the audience's eyes to a lost era.
Jack Truman and Opal in person!
 
That's why I like it
Sydney Southam
(14:30 - 2018, Canada)
"That's Why I Like It" is a culmination of my work as an artist, filmmaker, professional pole dancer and stripper. Using my own complicated experiences and insights into the labour conditions as inspiration for my line of questioning, I began interviewing and filming dancers from varying backgrounds in their homes, asking them questions around feminism, objectification, power, and love. The edited interviews are paired with a looping multi-channel video installation depicting the women's bodies from behind, swaying and twerking in hypnotic slow motion. "That's Why I Like It" presents a group of women who are simultaneously exalted and demeaned because of their profession, and strives to understand what it means to be consensually objectified for a living.
 
 
Tránsitos

Linda Pornsánchez
(35:11 - 2018, Spain )
"Tránsitos" is about the way that two migrant sex workers in Europe, who--while looking for a better life from machismo, transphobia, gender violence or whorephobia--instead find racism, violence and exploitation. It dives into their strategies such as activism, art and political love.

 



1:30 PM
Whore Film Power

A narrative, of a Bay Area sex worker telling her own story followed by a weighty retrospective of sex workers portraits in mainstream cinema, this program is a reflection on intersections/inspirations of sex work and cinema... interpretation, adaptation, translation, dialogue between the medium and power of film, representation, and the importance of workers creating that visual history.
 
 
Heart of Woman
Keith Holland/Toni Newman
(8:16- 2017, USA)
 Three diverse individuals, one male, one female and one who's wrestling with the decision, are working in the sex industry to survive, while they struggle physically, emotionally and spiritually to find understanding and legitimacy in a morally-corrupt world that takes no prisoners.
 
Whores on Film ( Pre Release Preview)
Juliana Piccillo
(90MIN - 2018, USA)
 With equal parts historical overview, critique, and homage, Whores on Film lets real life dommes, escorts, porn stars and hustlers tell you which films they love and which they hate, which get it right and which miss the mark and, most importantly, how perpetuating stereotypes in media affects real peoples' lives.
 
 
Followed by Q&A with Juliana Piccollo, Toni Newman and Keith Holland
 

 



4:15 PM
Have Body Will Travel

The program presents the diversity of family and affective configuration, in very different parts of the world... a young single polish sex worker in England, Thai women marrying Danish men to send money back home, a trans latina in California also dealing with issues of working to sustain a family...
 
 
£125/ hr
James Mileham/Andrew Owens
(09:32 - 2018, United Kingdom )
This short documentary explores the everyday life of Lyon, a polish teenager working as a prostitute in London.
 
 
Familia?
Kase Pena/Marlene Forte
(14:55 - 2017, USA )
A Transgender woman, pressured into returning to sex work by her demanding mother so that she may financially provide for her family in their native country, also deals with a pesky teenage neighborhood boy who's in love with her, and a married lover with empty promises.
 
 
Heartbound
Sine Plambech/Janus Metz
(90 MIN - 2018, Denmark)
Sommai, a former sex worker from Pattaya, lives in the windswept Northern Jutland. 25 years ago, she came to Thy to marry Niels, and ever since, she has helped women from her village in Thailand marry Danish men. Now, it is her niece Kae's turn.

Sommai and Niels place a personal ad in the newspaper, and soon a suitor comes forward. Meanwhile, in Thailand, another young woman, Saeng, tries to find a Danish man, but Sommai cannot help her, and instead, she must provide for her son by working in the sex bars in Pattaya.

Ten years later, we meet them all again and see what consequences their choices in life have had for themselves, their children and the two small communities in different parts of the world. Intimately and attentively, destinies and dreams are woven together in an existential life journey.




6:25 PM
Decrim, Dignity and Other Tales of Hope and Resistance

These energetic shorts inspire our activism, with a global focus on decriminalization/criminalization; laws; movements; organizing; community, resistance, and, of course, FOSTA SESTA... !
 

FOSTA SESTA FONECALLS
PJ Starr
(06:21 - 2019, US)
Some straight talk on the phone lines from PJ Starr, the Incredible Edible Akynos and Monica Jones about the impact of new federal laws about online sex work. Audio recorded by speaker phone and animation by PJ Starr.
PJ Starr in person!
 
 
Decriminalising sex work in South Africa
Eyewitness News and the Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking
(3:15 - 2013, South Africa)
A look at the argument supporting the total decriminalisation of adult sex work in South Africa, exposing the realities and dangers of being a sex worker.
 
 
La Puta Dignidad
Micaela Garrido with AMAR
(11:11 - 2018, Argentina)
Inspiring and provocative, La Puta Dignidad documents the experiences of sex workers organizing in Argentina with AMMAR (Asociación de Mujeres Meretrices de la Argentina), a sex-worker rights organization.

 
What You Don't See
Angela Donini/Laura Murray/Flavia Viana/Marina Cavalcanti/Tais Lobo
(08:41 - 2017, Brazil)
What You Don't See asserts sex workers' right to the city. It challenges stigmatizing discourses through images, texts and audio produced by sex workers during Rio de Janeiro's 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
 
 
30 years waiting
Kim Cums/DecrimQLD
(04:17 - 2019, Australia)
30 years after the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption, sex workers in Queensland, Australia take a stand against a licensing model that criminalises their safety.

Empower/ Sex Workers' Perspective
Marianne Chargois
(01:11:42 - 2018, France)
 EMPOWER is a series of 3 portraits of sex workers in France, with heterogeneous trajectories, crossing migration paths, trans identities, feminism, the fight against HIV, the fight against precariousness and against discriminations.
 Aying, Giovanna Murillo Rincon, and Mylène Juste make a real advocacy for minority rights, combining personal backgrounds, political analyses, and collective resistance strategies.



 
8:40 PM
Still and Moving Stories

 
A collection of deep reflections on the "whoreness" in our diverse communities. Unique explorations of a variety intersections ... race, beauty and sex worker experience/role by sex workers. These push far past the the stereotypical issues within sex worker identities and politics….
 
 
Sherry
Sherry Sherqueshaa
(1:23 - 2017, Singapore )
This series of portraits in photo montage presents a heartfelt story of pride and success at a crossroads. Stunningly beautiful, Sherry, trans woman and sex worker, wrote and directed this short. This video is part of a digital storytelling workshop sponsored by Project X and the Stilettos Alliance @care.
 
 
Materialistic
Xavier Hamel, Sarah El Khawand
(03:41 - 2019, US)
The Los Angeles pop artist challenges the roles of innocence and submission in his latest music video Materialistic. Jove's big appetite for men and wealth prompts him to escort on the streets of LA, providing the perfect boyfriend experience to his clients."The song was written about my time in Las Vegas as a 19 year old with a fake ID and getting into clubs and meeting older men. I knew that I was very materialistic because I was searching for a sugar daddy to buy me designer - even though I had a well paying job and could afford it by myself."
 
Work
Claire Allore
(11:07 - 2017, Canada)
Two sex workers in Toronto share experiences relating to race, gender, and emotional labour in their work.
 
 
Uiara
Saira Barbaric, Alistair Fyrn
(03:48 - 2017, US)
A professor lurks in search of a mythical creature and finds more than they could have hoped.
 
 
Boys For Sale
Produucer - Ian Ash, Director - Itako
(76MIN - 2017, Japan)
Young men are selling sex in Japan. Who is buying? In 2-chome, the gay district of Shinjuku, are bars selling "urisen" - straight boys who have sex with men. Formerly the red-light district of Tokyo, 2-chome has had an historical connection to prostitution since the Edo-period which continues to this day. Nine "urisen" speak about their experiences selling sex to men as well as how they began the work.
 



 
10:35 PM
Sewers of Heterosexuality

Experimental forms, wherecinema really meets sex work… it goes into intimacy without actually showing much… simple indie films, that let something unfold...
 
 
Sewers of Heterosexuality
Marianne Chargois
(11:11 - 2018, France)
 Marianne Chargois has been a professional Dominatrix for 10 years. She documents her practice from the inside through various sound and video recordings. Taking as a starting point the fetishisms she practices most with the clients--namely enemas, fist fucking, and urethral probes--she develops an analysis of toxic and dominant masculinities and their possible subversions. She shares her vision of sex work as a place of economic autonomy and empowerment of minorities. Between documentary, obscenity and analysis of practices, the video art The Sewers of Heterosexuality is a love manifesto to all ho's of the world.

Pennie
Lola Clavo
(60MIN - 2018, United Kingdom)
A documentary portrait of Pennie, a 29-year-old art student from Athens living in London and working in the sex industry. The film follows Pennie through her daily life for a period of one year. The film challenges preconceived notions regarding femininity, sexuality and sex work. Pennie is queerness in its essence. She is able to fluidly move through gender roles, stereotypes and sexuality in the most natural way, even when being part of an industry that moves strongly in the opposite direction.