The 6th San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival presented by
Desiree Alliance, ISWFACE, BAYSWAN and SWOP-USA
$8
per show, $30 day pass at the door or online (see below)
http://www.sexworkerfest.com/tickets2009.html
Films to screen at the Roxie, Saturday, June 6th
12
Noon - Keeping It Réal
Death
of a Whore
Director: Harmonia Carmona
(US and English language premiere) Grisélidis Réal, Switzerland’s
most famous prostitute and media image dies in Geneva on May 31, 2005.
In March 2009 an international scandal arose about Réal's honored
reburial alongside Swiss gentry. The trip through her biography shows
us remarkable countries and women. Prostitutes from Belgium, Switzerland,
Italy and Spain who have shared a unique way of living the sex trade
with her. They narrate their experiences in prostitution in a positive
way and at the same time direct the most active European groups in defense
of the rights of sex workers. Up to now, the depictions of prostitutes
have focused on describing their professional activities, “Muerte
de una puta” tells us the story of their lives outside of prostitution:
Their home, family, friends, interests…screened at 2006 Malaga
Film Festival, the 2006 San Sebastian Film Festival and more. (Spain,
90 min-2005, English translation-2009)
1:30 Special Screening! Excerpt
from:
Sex Worker to Sex Worker
Producer/Performer: Seranna (Jessie Abraham)
Director/Editor: Vikrant Kishore- Film Maker and Directo ;Cameraperson:
Imteyaz - ur rahman
Seranna, a local sex worker/activist/comedian turned movie producer,
visits Delhi, India to produce this movie with award winning Indian filmmaker,
Vikrant Kishore. The series is entitled Comparing Country's Compassion.
Her altar ego 'Jessie Abraham' compares laws, culture, police corruption,
and client condom usage and condom accessibility to discover how these
effect sex workers on a day to day level. Noting decriminalisation as
a best practice for the sex industry, Seranna interviews sex workers,
clients, HIV experts and sex work activists while an International guest
of an international sex workers conference. (Australia, excerpt from
43 min - 2009)
2
PM - Revenge of The Demimonde: Art Skivies
Vel
Bekomme (You're Welcome)
Director/Writer: Carl Eugen Johannessen; Producer: Elin Sander; DOP:
Erlend Haarr Eriksson
US Premiere! Short, tender and humorous narrative about a family of Russian
immigrants, and how a mother will do what she has to do to feed the family!
(Norway, 10 min-2008)
Courtney
Trouble in The Burnout
Director/Producers: Carol Leigh AKA Scarlot Harlot, Courtney Trouble
In this video, a 'day in Courtney's life' parallels her journey from
phone sex to sexual representation/pornography as well as her political
journey, interwoven with sex worker demonstrations, clips and photos
from sex worker organizations. This music video reflects a personal and
local story, and a political story. Many sex workers find a common voice
in Courtney Trouble's frustration, pride and defiance.
"How soon I got over, waiting alone at home for the telephone. Why
do you care...you can't see me...don't wanna know me at all but I know
you wanna get off."
Trouble's frustration evolves into a recognition of her mission to 'seize
the means of production.'
"It's just like anything else, it's just a job, but we've got the
guts to profit off our own skin. They won't acknowledge us until we own
enough to control it. They won't respect us until we give them no other
choice." (US, 4:30- 2008)
Flipping the Lens: A Look at $pread Magazine
Producer: Sex Workers Empowerment Project (SWEP); Lisa Davis, Kirby,
Andrea Ritchie, Will Rockwell, Tania Torres
The mainstream media's tendency is to gravitate towards sensationalism
when covering the sex trade, while simultaneously denying the voices
of sex workers themselves. News stories that allow only for victim-criminal
portrayals of sex workers help enforce and perpetuate damaging stereotypes.
What happens when sex workers become not just the subjects of media gaze,
but the authors, reporters, and publishers of sex trade news? This documentary
short takes a look at $pread Magazine, one example of sex worker-made
media, and discusses its aim to change the way that media itself approaches
sex work. (US, 8 min.-2009)
History
Director:Sarah Stolar; Co-produced by GiGi Gatewood
History is an emotional, whirlwind story about the psychological traumas
and spiritual triumphs of one girl. Through and experimental mix of digital
video, 16mm, and Super 8 film, the images move you through memory and
reality, real life and artifice. Arrays of miniature rooms perceptually
change the environment and are reminiscent of childhood dollhouses, a
time of lost innocence. The story begins in her adolescent years, follows
her through the loss of a marriage, isolation, the downward spiral of
drug addiction, sexual empowerment and promiscuousness, a battle with
mental insanity and suicide, and her ultimate spiritual confrontation
– the Devil versus God. At last, she finds serenity and begins
to pick up the pieces to start anew, only to realize her life is like
a never-ending story in a movie. History premiered at the Reel Venus
International Film Festival in New York City in 2004. (US, 5:03 2005)
Whore
Power
Director: Robert Johanssen
A super 8 silent about discovering graffiti in an alleyway,
orginally part of Mayworks - a festival of working people and/in
the arts. (Canada, 3 min-1999)
x + y
Artist: Joseph Kaminski, Kaminski Art Inc.
Videos of painter & sculptor Joseph Kaminski plus X Tube videos of
my porn performance persona, Mark Tatman. In presenting these videos
together for the first time, I aim to illustrate that male sex workers
are multi-dimensional with talents and lives beyond being sex objects.
Conversely, I’m happy to show that an artist, amateur musician
and simple dog lover is a sensual being, and can express himself through
erotic performance. I’m as proud of my contribution to the world
of adult entertainment as I am of my painting, sculpture and piano playing.
These are all equally valid and rich dimensions of my personality, and
in an ideal world, would coexist without negative stigma. (US, 8:09-2009)
Sorry
Your Grandma Was Mugged, But I Was Busy Arresting A Hooker
Director: Carol Leigh aka Scarlot Harlot
This is a short video about the trial of Starchild, the 'Million Dollar
Male Escort,' presents a unique approach to street theater documentation
with this protest by Sex Worker Outreach Project-USA starring Robyn Few,
Scarlot Harlot, Dee Dee Russell, Peter Keyes and Vanessa Nelson. In the
midst of a budget crisis which has caused clogging and early closure
of Fremont and Alameda courts,the District Attorney of Alameda chose
to prosecute an expensive (million dollar???) case against a famous San
Francisco male escort. (US, 6 min. 2008)
I
am a Sex Worker
Producer: Sex Work Awareness
New York-based advocacy organization recently implemented its first day-long
Speak Up media training workshop, which took place at the Harm Reduction
Coalition in mid-April. At the end of the day, the workshop participants
made a public service announcement video. Go to http://sexworkawareness.org
to learn more about SWA's media advocacy and public education initiatives.
(US, 1 min-2009)
The Face of
God
Director: Peter Pizzi; Starring: Ben McCoy
Upon sight of a charming young man, one tranny has a vision of heaven.
Walking about littered streets our tragic heroine, Ben McCoy comes face-to-face
with illusions and fantasies of grandeur. In an alley this boy-who-looks-like-a-girl
spirals through spirituality, narcissism, capitalist consumerist longings
and happily getting married; all while dancing before some hot stud.
Whether the male voyeur was a student of international law, or just some
hot trade – this love is blinding and binding…? The climax
leaves her pondering… Was he the face of god or just another frat
boy? (US, 7 min-2007)
Sadie
Lune at Moma
Writer/Performer: Sadie Lune; Video by Carol Leigh
Sadie Lune presents this first person performance piece "I WANT
YOU," which won 1st Place at the San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art on September 11, 2008. San Francisco artist, Tony Labat invited San
Franciscans to participate in this live art event based on the iconic
"I Want You" poster. Labat offered one minute at the museum
to "seize the voice of authority, to make demands of the public,
and to be the finger-pointing Uncle Sam." Contest winners will be
plastered over the city in on posters during election week. Sadie says,
I Want You to Vote Yes on Prop K. (US, 1:37-2008)
Sexworkers Do Harm Reduction II
Director: PJ Starr
What is the harm in sex work? Sex workers and allies explain that criminalization
and wrong-headed policy approaches are the problem. Sex work is positive,
its the policy framework that causes harm. What is „harm reduction‰
for sex workers then? Health services, needle exchange, distribution
of condoms, along with fighting against the laws that oppress sex worker
communities. These interviews were recorded in May 2008 at the International
Harm Reduction Conference in Barcelona Spain. (US, 6 min.-2008)
4
PM -Yes Means Yes: Making Sex Work Safe
Anti-trafficking: Cambodia the Reality
Produced by APNSW (Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers)
First-person stories of the effect and human cost of US backed anti-trafficking
laws on Cambodian sex workers, including accounts of a sex worker's stay
in a notorious "reeducation camp" prison. (Thailand, 4:43 min.
- 2008)
APNSW
Response to the UNAIDS Guidelines on Intensifying HIV Prevention
Produced by APNSW (Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers)
Asia
Pacific Network of Sex Workers flings a passionate answer back to the
2007 UNIADS Guidance Note on HIV and Sexwork in this fact - packed video
project. (Thailand, 4:23 min. - 2008)
Prostitution
Free Zone
Director: PJ Starr; Alliance for Safe and Diverse DC
Constitutional right to freedom of assembly? Not in DC, honey! This film
takes a sobering look at how, with attempts to gentrify inner-city Washington,
"Prostitution Free Zones" in our nation's capital are being
used to move targeted people out of the neighborhoods where they have
traditionally congregated, often at a loss of safety. Also featuring
a "dramatic reenactment" of a prostitution free zone by Takia
Cash, Sugaa Delite and other well-known indie film icons from the District.
(US, 13 min-2009)
Rape and Prostitution – A Question of Consent
Producers: English Collective of Prostitutes
Sex workers came together with Ladies and Lords, Members of Parliament
and a wide range of supporters including from Iraq, India and Bolivia
to challenge new repressive legislation in the England. Hear them confront
the religious fundamentalists and government feminists who say prostitution
is rape and claim that most sex workers have been trafficked, meanwhile
rapists continue to get away with it and the police prioritize arresting
sex workers.(UK, 10 min. excerpt - 2009)
Sex
Worker Open University London, April 2009
Director/Producer- Ellie Gurney; Camera/Editing Nathan Godkin
"Some politicians, religious representatives and part of
the feminist movement claim that all sex workers are victims
and that all sex work is violent or immoral. But many sex workers
are feminists and we support the right of all consenting adults
to express our sexuality as we wish and to enjoy the same rights
as other workers."
"The Sex Worker Open University project brings together
sex workers, academics, activists, artists and allies to explore
the richness, diversity and contradictions of the sex industry.
We want to give a voice to sex workers, whose lives are too
often stereotyped and voices too often silenced. We want to
challenge media sensationalism, which, hand in hand with the
UK government, often represent us as victims or criminals. Our
time has come. A society that recognises, accepts, respects
and values sex workers is a fairer and more mature society.
(UK, 10 min- 2009)
Sex
Worker Activists Speak Up About the Movement
Director: Audacia
Ray
In mid
July, sex workers and their allies met up at the Desiree Alliance
conference in Chicago to discuss issues affecting people who
work in the sex industry. I presented on sex workers and the
media and put the media stuff into practice by making a video
for Naked City TV about sex workers rights activists. In this
episode of the show, I interview sex worker rights activists
from three generations about their experiences in the movement,
what's changed, and what the movements' issues are for the future.
The women and organizations featured in this video are
Margo St. James - a sex worker who was one of the earliest activists
of the modern sex worker rights' movement in the United States.
St. James Infirmary - the first occupational safety and health
clinic for sex workers run by and for sex workers. Operating
in San Francisco since 1999.
Robyn Few - former sex worker and founder of the national Sex
Workers Outreach Project
SerpentLibertine - sex worker, activist, blogger and producer
of the Red Light District Chicago audio and video podcasts.
(US, 2:40 min- 2009)
Know
Your Rights
Producer/ Director/ Camera: SerpentLibertine; Producer/ Writer: kittenINFINITE
KittenINFINITE and SerpentLibertine of SWOP Chicago break down, step
by step, what to do and what NOT to do if you're a sex worker and you
get busted plying your trade. Scripted for the state of Illinois, but
the advice given is sound (and soundly entertaining!) no matter where
you hustle. Part 1 of the know Your Rights for Sex Workers workshop video.
(US, 23 min.-2009)
National March on Washington
Producer/ Director/ Camera: SerpentLibertine
Documentary of the first National March for Sex Worker's Rights in Washington
DC. includes speeches and march footage. SerpentLibertine is a veteran
sex worker and activist with SWOp-Chicago and the Desiree Alliance. She
created the podcast/ TV show RedlightDistrictChicago.com and organizes
locally with Sex Worker's Outreach Project-Chicago. (US, 19 min-2008)
6
PM My Life, My Work, My Choice: Transgender Sex Workers Unite!
My Life, My Work, My Choice
Produced by APNSW (Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers)
Transgendered members of APNSWN shout-out their positions on sex work
and trans life! (Thailand, 3:40- 2007)
Transgenders
Life
Produced by APNSW (Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers)
In classic soap opera style, this community of transgender sex workers
from across Asia at the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers produce this
moving 'novella' about the struggles for transgender people and sex workers
in their culture. Presented at the "Trans-Stravaganza" meeting
in 2006. (Thailand, 8:47-2008)
Cinema
of Desire
Dir: Peter Mantello
Cinema Of Desire is an upbeat, quirky portrait of Tak, a transgendered
sex worker who services her clients daily in an old run down cinema in
Bangkok's working class neighborhood. The film is an intimate, poignant
and often times funny glimpse at the ordinary life of an astonishingly
extra-ordinary person. The cinema becomes a site where the erotic fantasies
of the screen start to blur with the physical ecstasy in the viewing
seat. (30 min. - 2009)
En El Fuego (In The Fire)
Director: Dante Alencastre
Peruvian trans women are literally thrown to the dogs by police in a
“Roman circus” of violence. Despite the danger of living
openly in a conservative, corrupt country, these Peruvians prosper and
persevere. They earn advanced degrees, work with children and stand up
for themselves, effecting a change in the status quo for their LGBT community.
Transgendered sexworkers, activists and allies in Lima, Peru relate their
stories and common struggles in the first person in this moving film.
Screened widely at Festivals around the globe. (US/Peru, 35 min.- 2007)
8
PM - She Deserves It
Zinda Laash
Director:
Bishakha Datta, Jyotika Jain, Shakti MasIja; Producer: Point of View
US Festival Premiere. The sex worker-"vamp" transcends hemispheres
in this short film, named after the first movie ever given an X rating
in Pakistan, about the stereotypical representation of sex workers in
Bollywood. (India, 14:36- 2009)
When
We Walk the Streets
Director: Durjoy Nari Shango
This 11-minute film shows scenes from the lives of sex workers, including
sex workers answering back to the so-called impartial observer behind
the documentary camera, and interactions with police. In Bengali with
English subtitles. (Bangladesh, 11:03-2008)
Beyond
the Barbed Wire Curtain
Producer: Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee
US Premiere! Indian sex workers in Sonagachi, Calcutta's sprawling red
light district, have organized one of the world's largest and most powerful
sex worker trade collectives. In this short film, Durbar Mahila Samanwaya
Committee (DMSC) association puts pressure to bear on law enforcement
in Calcutta to protect sex workers, handles the situation of a young
woman unwillingly brought into the trade, and arbitrates the case of
an underage worker. The process is constructed by sex workers, for sex
workers! ( India, 21 min. -2008)
A Safer Sex Trade
Producer / Writer / Director: Carolyn Allain, Cheap and Dirty Productions
A documentary that explores the stigma of prostitution through the eyes
of three women: Jennifer, a formal survival sex trade worker; Simone,
a highly paid independent escort; and Scarlett, an established veteran
madam. Set in the city of Vancouver, where serial killer Robert Pickton
stands trial for the murders of twenty-six women, most of whom were working
in the sex trade. (Canada, 48 min.-2006)
10
PM Whore Pride
Margo
St. James in person!
Hard
Work with Margo St. James
Director: Ginny Durrin
Wonderful energetic documentary about the beginnings of the modern day
prostitutes’ rights movement with this profile of Margo St. James...
features the first articulations of ‘whore feminism’ and
special appearances by Lottie Da and many more. (US, 29 min.-1977)
Sex Workers (and Proud Of It)
Director: Jean-Michel Carre
(US Premiere) "I prefer to sell my sex for money than to sell my
soul to a boss." "The government takes our money and screws
us - the government is a pimp." "Everybody sells themselves
- everybody buys." French sex workers drop wisdom as well as their
drawers in this glitzy and sexy, yet uniquely philosophical film.
Referred to as the oldest profession in the world, prostitution remains
"that obscure object of hate and desire." Whatever the political
system might be, why is it still the most stigmatized activity in our
societies, even when it is practiced overtly and by consent? And why
does this stigma persist, even when market economy has generated an increase
in the number of erotica exhibitions and of companies publishing pornographic
videos, in the so-called name of consumer rights and of pseudo-sexual
freedom?
Today, men and women demand the right to rent out their bodies or sell
their sexual favours freely. Stigma, moralizing and hypocrisy are the
subject matter of this film, exploring the relationships between men
and women as well as sexuality, power, control and commercial sex. (French,
85 min-2009)
12 Midnight- Wanking
the Neighbors (Porn, San Francisco Style)
Midnight sex fest! Clips starring you and/or your neighbors' home grown
porn with Blowfish, Kink.com, Daddy Porn, No Fauxxx, and Good Vibrations
and the New School of Erotic Touch including kink/SM/BD/fetish/sex ed
from San Francisco with stars including Madison Young in "Bride
of Sin." Live narration by Scarlot Harlot and friends! (70
min-2009)
Wanking The
Neighbors
or
Porn, San Francisco Style
Local Film Makers/Producers
Pink and White Productions, Kink.com, Blowfish, Sir Video
New School of Erotic Touch, Tallulah Sulis, nofauxx.com/Courtney Trouble,
House O' Chicks
Submissions
from Army of Lovers, Male Sex Worker Art Show include X + Y and Daddy
Porn; Stars include Madison Young, Cyd, Jade Blue Eclipse, Syd Blakovich,
and Courtney Trouble and many more!
Selection of
Winners of
Good Vibration's 2008 Erotic Film Festival: Future O, Phil Loves SF