Media Release- Please Distribute Widely

Please click here for instructions about web promo and posting campaign.

6th San Francisco Sex Worker Film, Art and Music Festival

Festival dates: May 30th to June 7th, 2009
Website:http://www.sexworkerfest.com/
Tel: 415-751-1659
Email: swfest@bayswan.org
Schedule Updates:http://www.sexworkerfest.com/schedule2009.html

Tickets Available at:http://www.sexworkerfest.com/tickets2009.html

We are very excited to announce the 2009 San Francisco Sex Worker Film, Arts and Music Festival. This is the 10th anniversary, and 6th Biennial Festival! This year we focus on documentaries, sex worker portraits and activist shorts. The 2009 movies represent new trends in sex worker cinema, the intimate focus on individual sex workers with a new respect for their courage in the face of hazards of the work and escalating repression. New activist shorts also mark currents trend including "how-to," safety education for sex workers, and unabashed, playful and celebratory sex worker rights propaganda.


The 2009 Sex Worker Fest will be presented in tandem with the Queer Cultural Festival http://www.queerculturalcenter.org. The 2009 Fest includes a week of fun, sexy, political, kinky, naughty, bold and educational events: Saturday. May 30th- A Radar benefit hosted by Michelle Tea with Dorothy Allison, Kirk Read and more; Sunday, May 31st- Two events-An All Day Shopping Orgy/ Kinky Gifts, Sex Worker Crafts Show and Garage Sale at Center for Sex & Culture featuring entertainment including Ckiara Rose reading from "Song of Men Slaves"; May 31st- late night party at Diva's sponsored by Sex Workers Outreach Project; Monday, June 1st- Sex Workers Outreach Project Hospitality Day and Roundtable for sex workers and allies; Tuesday, June 2nd- a party at El Rio with sex worker musicians including Mariko Passion featuring Mistress of Ceremonies, Annie Danger; Wednesday and Thursday, June 3rd and 4th- Army of Lovers, performances by male sex workers, curated by Kirk Read at Center For Sex & Culture; Friday June 5th Two events -Movies at Artists’ Television Access 7-10 PM; Late night- 9PM-3am, Cirque X" at Paradise Lounge benefit for St. James Infirmary, 10 year anniversary, a carnival of decadence with amazing fire troops and aerial acrobatics to sexy burlesque shows, exotic dancers, XXX porn stars, drag queens and fierce DJs!; The Sex Worker Fest also introduces work from artists including cartoons by Modern Hooker at http://www.modernhooker.com.


Movies include local and international premieres including Death of a Whore, a Spanish-language biography of Grisélidis Réal, whose re-burial caused a recent international scandal ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/09/prostitute-griselidis-rea_n_173212.html ); "Happy Endings" with interviews from massage parlor workers in Rhode Island as they are confronted with the racism and zenophobia of local anti-prostitution activists; Science Friction with "Cinema of Desire" in this portrait of a trans sex worker from Thailand; "You're Welcome," a tender and humorous story of 'the whore next door' from Norway; a panel and international feature about sexual services for disabled clients; sex worker activist produced short docs and experimental work include “Prostitution Free Zone” by PJ Starr, "Flipping the Lens: A Look at $pread Magazine," and "Know Your Rights" from Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) Chicago; experimental shorts from Renegade Evolution and music videos from Scarlot Harlot; plus clips from your neighbors' home grown porn with Blowfish, No Fauxxx, and Good Vbirations and New School of Erotic Touch including kink/SM/BD/fetish/sex ed from San Francisco with stars including Madison Young in "Bride of Sin." This year the San Francisco Sex Worker Festival is honored to share eight short works from sexworkerspresent, the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers. These powerful productions and collected work provide a valuable library of first person accounts of sex worker's lives and organizing efforts in Asia and around the World. We also thank COSWAS, Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters from Taiwan for assistance curating this festival.


Curators and hosts include Scarlot Harlot, Kirk Read, Laure McElroy, Luna Pantera, Annie Danger, Madeline Lowe and Mariko Passion. Sponsors include the National Queer Arts Festival http://www.queerculturalcenter.org, Trannyfest http://www.trannyfest.com, International Sex Worker Foundation for Art Culture and Education http://www.iswface.org, the St. James Infirmary http://www.stjamesinfirmary.org, Breaking The Silence Film and Arts Festival, BAYSWAN http://www.bayswan.org, The Center for Sex & Culture http://www.sexandculture.org, SWOP-USA http://www.swopusa, Good Vibrations, http://www.goodvibes.com, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and others to be announced!


For further information, including sponsorship opportunities, email swfest@bayswan.org
Sex worker musicians, please contact: mariko.passion@gmail.com
Male sex worker artists, contact Kirk for the Army of Lovers show. mswfestival@gmail.com

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Instructions for web posting campaign

Dear Friends,
Some of you from far away were looking for a way to volunteer. Here is the easy, fun job of spreading the word on the web...all ready to go and easy for you with the instructions below:


The long version of the press release is ready, along with pictures to download and post.
I will also put a short version on that page also.
http://www.sexworkerfest.com/swfest2009/Release2009.html


Instructions for web campaign:
1. Email swfest@bayswan.org and let us know you are going to do this.
2. Follow that link above and use the material at the site.(Check back for changes as I will be updating it.)
3. We haven't posted it anywhere except Facebook, but that can still use a bigger campaign. You can start with any...Myspace, local announcement boards, Bound Not Gagged, etc. I will being posting updates at this Google doc about where we have posted this. I think you can also add what you did to the google doc...sometimes that doesn't work. http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc7zq2x9_140cmcs3d32
4. If you can't get on to the google doc, email swfest@bayswan.org and let us know where you posted it.
5. Below is a list of venues and addresses. Ideally, you can just put "San Francisco" or "multiple locations," but for a list of venues:

May 30th- Muse Gallery 614 Alabama Street San Francisco, CA 94110
May 31st- June 3, 4th-Center for Sex and Culture, 1519 Mission, San Francisco, CA 94103
June 1st- Diva’s Night Club and Bar,1081 Post St, San Francisco, CA 94109 http://www.divassf.com/
June 2nd--El Rio-3158 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, http://www.elriosf.com/
June 5th- Artists’ Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, http://www.atasite.org/
June 5th- Paradise Lounge, 1501 Folsom St., San Francisco CA,94103http://www.paradisesf.com/
June 6th- Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, http://www.roxie.com/
June 7th- Ninth Street Independent Film Center, 145 9th St. San Francisco, CA 94103 - (415) 503-1972 http://www.ninthstreet.org/

Festival Info Line: 415-287-3114
Media and Business line: 415-751-1659
Generally, use 415-287-3114

 

Thanks sooooo much! Yippie!
Please call or email if you have questions.
415-751-1659

 

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If you are posting this info on the web, below are additional items for you to download and upload to various websites.

 

You can download a word doc of above text at:

http://www.sexworkerfest.com/swfest2009/SWFESTRelease-Draft1.doc

Images for web postings:

(drag these to your desktop and you can upload and post them on websites)

 

Additional Photos:

http://www.sexworkerfest.com/swfest2009/photos/

Additional Images:

http://www.sexworkerfest.com/swfest2009/images09/