The 6th San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival presented by Desiree Alliance, ISWFACE, BAYSWAN and SWOP-USA

Movies Listed in Alphabetical Order

Films to screening at El Rio (June 2), Artists Television Access (June 5), the Roxie (June 6), and Ninth Street Independent Film Center (June 7)

(Note: Segments from additional works will be screened in conjunction with two shows, a midnight show of local erotica/porn at the Roxie on June 6th, and a show about disability and sex work in collaboration with Sins Invalid, http://www.sinsinvalid.org on June 7th including a number of movies not yet listed below.)

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)
June 6th, 8 PM Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 5, 7 PM Artists’ Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, SF

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)
June 5, 7 PM Artists’ Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 8 PM Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 6 PM Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 2 PM Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

Death of a Whore 90 min
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)
June 6th, 12 Noon, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 6 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 2nd, 8 PM, El Rio-3158 Mission Street, SF

Five Sex Rooms and a Kitchen
Director / Producer: Eva C. Heldmann; Cinematography: Rainer Komers
US premiere! The film documents work in a little whore house in Germany: The sex rooms are equipped differently according to the varied needs of the customers. The kitchen is where the life goes on between the work: waiting, reading, making-up, calls and more calls, chatting and cooking. The film reveals the expressive power of shoes. The whores dance a ballet of dominance, artifice, and pleasure.) Enjoy speculum and stirrups in der Klinik studio, a bat-cave dungeon with a neat hydraulic lift, and spiked heels galore in this busy Berlin flat, where it's business-as-usual for four Deutsche Sexarbeitern (German sex workers). (Germany, 79 min. -2008)
June 2nd, 8 PM, El Rio-3158 Mission Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 2 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

Happy Endings
Director/Producer: Tara Hurley; Editor: Nick Marcoux; Sound Design: Timothy O'Keefe
Laws in Rhode Island were amended to decriminalize "private sexual interactions between consenting adults". So why are the massage parlors getting busted? This film is a brilliant answer back to hypocrisy in the metropolitan American political, police and judicial response to sex work. This feature length documentary that explores the Asian Massage Parlor industry in Providence, RI. (US, 80 min- 2008)
June 5, 7 PM, Artists’ Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 2 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

Interacting with The Disabled in The Adult Entertainment World
Director: William Takahashi
A computer animated instructional DVD, designed to educate and assist adult performers to interact with the disabled in the best possible way. This video is by an artist who speaks from a first person perspective. Takahashi's disability is Cerebral Palsy. "I decided to enter the adult design world because I saw a real need for education, understanding and integration of the disabled into the adult industry. It's unfortunate that sex and disability are more often seen as a medical or academic research topic , but not seen as erotic or hot." An excerpt from this work will be screened in conjunction with a show about the intersection of issues in disability and sex work communities. (US, clips from 34 min DVD- 2009)
June 7th, 7 PM, Ninth Street Independent Film Center, 145 9th St., SF

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)
June 6th, 4 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 6 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 4 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

MTV and the trafficking law in Cambodia
Produced by No Exit News
MTV and U.S. AID want to save Cambodian women from sex work, but some very irate Cambodian women think MTV forgot to have a conversation or two along the way... A heartfelt response by sex workers in Cambodia to the MTV Exit Campaign against trafficking and exploitation. (Cambodia, 9 min-2008)
June 5, 7 PM, Artists’ Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 4 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

Next Door Neighbors' Wank-Off (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." (90 min-2009)
Saturday, June 6th, Midnight, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
Saturday, June 6th, 4 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
Saturday, June 6th, 4 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 4 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 2 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

Sex Workers (and Proud Of It)
Director: Jean-Michel Carre (Film Maker In Person)
(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)
June 6th, 10 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 4 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)

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)
June 6th, 2 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

Tenofovir Trial in Cambodia
By Women's Network for Unity, Cambodia
Sell your body... to science! UCSF, The Bill Gates Foundation and various NGOs collaborate to persuade Cambodian sex workers to "contribute to society" by offering their bodies (and possibly their good health?) up to clinical trials of a then-untested HIV drug. This film is the inside story of Cambodian Sex Workers' struggle around a clinical trial testing Tenofovir's potential for HIV prevention. US, 46:44- 2008) Screening online TBA.

To See or Not to See
Director: Tsai Yi-Feng
US Premiere “To See or Not To See,” tells the fascinating story of immigrant sex workers from mainland China in Taiwan. Director Tsai Yi-Feng rides in the backseat with a driver for the sex workers, and follows the women from their recruitment in Chengdu, Sichuan, to their workplace in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. As immigrants, the women in this video might be stereotyped as ‘trafficking victims,’ but the movie documents the real lives, perceptions and difficult choices for these women. “To See or Not To See,” is a must-see for all those who suspect that behind the sensationalistic trafficking headlines, there is a deeper and more complex story. (Taiwan, 64 min.-2003)
June 5, 7 PM Artists’ Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, SF

Transgender's 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)
June 6th, 6 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 2 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)
June 6th, 8 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

Whore Power
Director: Robert Johanssen
A super 8 silent aabout discovering graffiti in an alleyway, orginally part of Mayworks - a festival of working people and/in the arts. (Canada, 3 min-1999)
June 6th, 2 PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF

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)

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)
June 6th, 10PM, Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, SF