|
Sex
Worker Fest Movies at The Roxie and Other Venues
May
20th movies in conjunction with
Sex Work IS NOT Trafficking
May
18th Sex Workers in Cinema: Sex Worker/Audience Forum
& Screening
May
23rd Sex Worker Movie Marathon at the Roxie
3117 16th Street
The Roxie program pdf with images is here:
Sex
Worker Movies Only Program
The San Francisco Sex Worker
Film and Art Festival, as always, focuses on the lives,
the art, and the struggle for workers' and human rights
of people employed in sex work industries. The festival
strives to maintain a forum for diverse voices, including
youth, sex workers of color, migrant sex workers; sex
workers' rights organizations around the world, queer
and trans sex workers, sex worker artists, saints, heros
and she-ros, and sex workers both within and outside the
borders of the United States. Films and topics address
the impact of trafficking policy and discourse on sex
workers; sex work as a labor issue on the international
agenda; sex work and gender identities, sex education,
sex art, porn, fetish culture and erotica, as well as
portraits of strippers, prostitutes, doms, madams and
much more.
2 PM Sex Worker Family Values
sponsored By SWOP Bay Area with SWAFF, Sex Workers Allies,
Family and Friends In Honor of Shannon Williams
What makes a family? Blood ties can bind or merely restrict.
Whether natural or intentional, the ones whom we choose
to be at our backs, or at our sides, or above us when
we’re on our backs, nurture us in ways various and
profound. We sex workers have families of birth and families
of choice; the real familial relationships we have in
our lives, although rarely perfect, seldom approach the
carnival-style dysfunction that media and common stereotypes
of where we come from would have them rest at. Rather,
just like everyone else on the planet, our loved ones
shape who we are, how we work, what matters to us, how
we judge ourselves and how we see others in relation to
us. Sponsored by Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP BAY
AREA) The theme of this show takes its inspiration from
the campaign Sex Workers Allies, Family and Friends (SWAFF)
developed by SWOP leader, our friend Shannon Williams,
whose sudden death rests heavy with us in the Bay Area
sex worker community. -LM
I am a Sex Worker
Writer/Director: Julia Thays; Producer: CiudadaniasX
The video recreates one day in the life of a young sex
worker. Liliana speaks about her decision, hopes and fears
while she celebrates her birthday. Part of "Commotion:
a Cultural intervention to fight violence towards women
and trans sex workers, the ‘Commotion Intervention’
is an effort to create empathy toward a group of Individuals
who have historically faced discrimination and neglect.
Taking advantage of ‘Cultural Activism,’ artists,
sex workers' associations and researchers participated
in a complex process of learning the reality each sex
worker that ended in building a set of artistic and communicational
activities to fight against violence towards sex workers.
In the process we included a communicational campaign
using posters on the streets, radio spots, photos and
comics on a website. As part of the intervention we created
a short film called "I am a sex worker" that
recreates one day in the life of a woman who does sex
work. The intervention finalized with the first march
of sex workers and activists-through the main streets
in Lima. / 7 minutes / 2013/ Lima, Peru
Roxanne
Producer: Akua Obeng-Frimpong; Writer/Director/Producer:
Paul Frankl
Motherhood is redefined as a beautiful and all inclusive
as well as healing when Roxanne, an isolated transgender
sex worker, takes in a young girl who has been abandoned
by her mother, and her life is thrown into question. /14
minutes / 2014 / UK
The Malak
Director: Kat Mansoor with VAMP/SANGRAM
In India, a Malak is a female sex worker’s informal
companion. In this funny short an Indian activist introduces
us to her Malak and describes their courtship and subsequent
relationship. Kamlabhai, protagonist and long time sex
worker activist, died this year. She had been a dedicated
friend, sex worker and activist and she is missed by her
large community./ 3 minutes / 2011 / india
We
Are Foot Soldiers
Directors: Debolina Dutta and Oishik Sircar
What does sex work have to do with child rights? In this
mid-length documentary young activists of Amra Padatik
(literally translates from the Bengali as ‘We are
foot soldiers’), an organization formed by the children
of sex workers in India, relate the challenges, the sacrifices
and the gifts of being children of sex workers in Kolkata?s
Sonogachi red light district. The Film journeys through
the lives of six Amra Padatik members whose entangled
realities do not paint a picture of helplessness, but
of political assertiveness and social consciousness. /26
minutes/ 2011 /Kolkata, India
Director’s
Note:
We are not trained filmmakers. We are activist lawyers
and have been associated with Durbar Mahila Samanwaya
Committee(DMSC) for over a decade. In 2007 we received
a fellowship to write a paper documenting the collectivization
of Amra Padatik (AP), the organization of children of
sex workers formed under the aegis of DMSC. But at one
of our discussions during this time, the young activists
of AP told us that no one (especially within their community)
would ever read our paper which was going to be written
in English. So we were urged to do something more useful
with the research that will have a wider use and reach,
especially within their community. It was also around
this time that ?Born into Brothels? had won the Oscar
and Amra Padatik members were furious at the fact that
the film did not acknowledge the existence of the vibrant
sex workers movement in Kolkata and portrayed their mothers
as irresponsible and incompetent parents. The children
drew inspiration from the work that their mothers have
been doing to demand their right to sex work as work.
Stereotypical images of their suffering are something
that many of them identify with, yet, far from despair
and fear, in the face of adversity, their responses are
far more complex, hopeful and strong.
from
‘Mr. Mingling,’ the son of a festival producer:
‘I just want to say to the makers of the film, BRAVO!!!,
I loved it. It was great film, and well, it got the message
to me. This movie, in my opinion, will inspire many more
people to try help, maybe not in India, But I think they
will try to help others like the sex workers in the movie,
or maybe they will try to get help for the children of
sex workers, who have to bear the ‘shame’
that the ignorant people say the mothers bring on them,
so they can have a positive outlook, I mean, the possibilities
are endless, that’s the great part.’ -see
his full essay at www.sexworkerfest.com/footsoldiers
Mistress May I?
Gabrielle Ewing
Despite being a very successful dominatrix, Mistress Couple
grapples with the fact that her parents cannot accept
who she truly is. / 7 minutes / 2015 / us
Born
into Porn
Director/Producer Miki Ann Mosman; Editor Corey Michael
Smithson
Family Values. Pornography. One would be hard-pressed
to find two terms seemingly more at odds, and yet of course
many of the people in the adult-film industry are husband
and wives, and opt to raise a family. Are these families
‘dysfunctional’ ‘normal,’ or even
mundane? How do the career choices of the parents impact
the children? Born Into Porn delves into the complex dynamic
that exists behind the scenes once the cameras have turned
off and the porn stars have gone home. It is not a sensational
look at the private lives of these performers, but rather
an in-depth exploration of the issues faced by the parents
and children, both with each other and the world outside,
as well as an examination of 21st century cultural mores
in a society where pornography has become both ubiquitous
and polarizing.
Director/ Producer Miki Ann Mosman began her career as
a journalist. Ultimately her penchant and passion for
people the people she encountered, inspired a new career
as a filmmaker. Part of her ongoing series, The Sex Puzzle.
/ 58 minutes / 2014 / US
4:15 PM Despite You, We
Endure
Sex work is not a killing offense in most places, but
sociopathic moralism and indifferent, neglectful, or outright
hostile legal and justice systems guarantee a body count
among sex workers. This sacrifice of lives has nothing
to do with client violence, and everything to do with
the systemic undervaluing of our humanity. The moral narrative
of power patriarchy casts us as victims at best, either
degraded or inhuman, fit only to be locked in cages, incapable
of nurturing any other person or creative effort properly
(like, say, a mother would) and labeled homicidal if we
fight back for our right to exist free from violence directed
toward us. WE say, say what you will about us, cast your
shade and sling your dirt; we are everywhere, we are stronger
than you imagine, and we will carry on with or without
your approval. --LM
Jasmine and Dora 4 Ever
Carol Leigh
In 2012 during the International AIDS Conference in Washington,
DC, Carol Leigh aka Scarlot Harlot met and interviewed
sex work activist and mother Petite Jasmine with Pye Jakobsson
from Rose Alliance of Sweden. Petite Jasmine was murdered
one year later, a victim of the stigmatisation and legal
discrimination that sex workers face. Around the same
time Dora Özer, a sex worker in Turkey, was also
murdered in a rash of escalating transphobia in Turkey.
This video chronicles the efforts of the communities of
sex workers supporters and allies to memorialize Dora
and Jasmine. /13 minutes / 2014 / US
Predatory
Prostitute
Juniper Fleming
Juniper Fleming’s short Predatory Prostitute is
rooted in the compelling relationships sex workers have,
both directly and indirectly, to the legacy of Aileen
Wuornos. A fascinating and brave film that uses found
footage to invert the common narratives around Aileen,
creating an alternative framework by which we can view
her actions and ourselves. /25 minutes / 2014/ US
Juniper Fleming is living in New York. She attained her
BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2014, she was the
recipient of a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
(DAAD) Fellowship in 2013 and the Brian Weil Memorial
Award in 2014.
Note from Juniper Fleming: The term "predatory prostitute"
was coined by John Tanner the Florida state attorney who
prosecuted Aileen Wuornos in 1992. A lesbian prostitute
sentenced to death six times for seven murders, though
she claimed self-defense. The media, the court, and the
public condemned Wuornos with vigor. Told how dare she
kill in the name of her own life. She refused to be a
victim, and it was for that she had to die.
How
Police Profile and Shame Sex Workers
Molly Crabapple and Jim Batt at Fusion.net
In May 2013, Monica Jones, a student and LGBT activist
at Arizona State University, was arrested for ‘manifesting
prostitution.’ Monica said she just accepted an
undercover officer's offer of a ride home from her favorite
bar. Monica is among the tens of thousands of people arrested
every year for prostitution-related offenses. According
to the FBI, police arrested over 57,000 people on such
charges in 2011. The vast majority were women. / 4 minutes/
2015 / US
The Making of the Marcia Powell Story
by PJ Starr
Activist and documentary filmmaker PJ Starr explores the
death of Marcia Powell and campaign for justice. In 2009
while she was serving an excessively long term of more
than two years imprisonment for ‘solicitation of
prostitution,’ Marcia Powell was locked in a metal
cage in the desert sun at an Arizona prison. Four hours
later she collapsed in the over 107 degree heat, and by
day’s end she was dead. Our audience is invited
to participate in feedback for PJ Starr’s work-in-progress
as she investigates the circumstances of Marcia’s
death, exposing the system that has lead to the death
of scores of others in facilities across Arizona, and
documents a movement that has formed seeking justice in
her name. 65 minutes / 2015 /US
PJ Starr is a filmmaker, photographer, writer, researcher
and advocate for the rights of sex workers, transgender
communities, immigrants and people living with mental
health concerns. PJ has made a number short of films about
the experiences of trans people and people in the sex
trade.
6:30 No Justice, No Piece!
The red tide of sex work activism is rising like an eros
wave! It will soon wash across the globe entire and deluge
us all in the sweet- salty fluids of ecstatic justice!
The sum of our ambitions is to work and love in dignity,
safely and independently, to be able to earn our living
free from the obsessive persecutions of low-minded moralists.
This seems to hold true irrespective of country or nationality.
Nascent struggles in East and South Africa inspire with
their vigor and enthusiasm. Voices raised from Nairobi
to Gauteng Province emphasize sex worker response to STD
safety and prevention, as well as spinning amusing commentaries
on the hypocrisy of otherwise faithful clients who make
careers out of condemning sex work as an institution.
European supporters of sex work call out criminalisation
of workers and clients as the useless, harm-generating
policy it has proven to be. Far-and Southeast Asian trans
workers reveal themselves in everyday clothes and sensible
heels as a formidable presence, hilarious at times, and
poetic. The unifying theme all over the world is love
of self and love of one another; this is the honeyed adhesive
that underpins the most effective activist voices trending,
that binds us together in a worldwide web of positivity,
moving forward to a better, to a shame and stigma-free,
tomorrow. –LM
Sex Workers Are Part of the Solution, Not the Problem
International Committee for the Rights of Sex Workers
in Europe (ICRSE)
This video was shot at International Committee on the
Rights of Sex Workers in Europe’s Regional Training
on Sex Worker’s Human Rights in Budapest between
17 - 21 October 2014. Sex worker involvement in hiv response
programming that targets the sex worker community is absolutely
necessary. A compelling mix of evidence based statistics
and first person testimonies. /11 minutes / 2014 /UK,
Europe
New Jersey Sex Workers Step Out
PJ Starr
Sex Work Activist and documentary filmmaker PJ starr catches
on film The New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance (NJRUA) as
they take their first steps to defend the rights of sex
workers in New Jersey. On October 24, 2014, three representatives
tabled at Rutgers University to raise awareness and start
organizing for December 17 (the International Day to End
Violence against Sex Workers).
/ 1 minute / 2014 / US
The
Street in Red
Clare Havell (SWOU) and Atieh Attarzadeh
Street in Red is a short documentary which focuses on
the laws and social stigmatisation that endanger the lives
of sex workers working in the streets in the UK.
5 minutes / 2011 / UK
December
17th Message From a Sex Worker in Turkey
Producer: SineSet Studyo
Camera: Gizem Bayiksel
A beautiful, brave and down to earth Turkish Trans worker
takes to the screen in this short, created in honor of
December 17th, International Day to End Violence Against
Sex Workers with K¦rm¦z¦ S¸emsiye. 1 minute / 2013
/ Turkey
Making
Sex Work
by Cristina Rad
Cristina Rad and friends take anti-sexwork feminism to
task in this charming and concise short. This famous Romanian
Atheist vlogger also produces zomgitscriss, a youtube
channel / 10 minutes / 2010 / US
A
Message of Solidarity
International Committee for the Rights of Sex Workers
in Europe (ICRSE)
Sex worker participants of the International Committee
on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe’s Regional
Training on Sex Workers’ Human Rights send a short
but sweet message of unity, self empowerment and self
love to fellow workers around the world. / 2 minutes /
2014 / UK, Europe
MWILI
WANGU, CHAGUO LANGU - My Body, My Choice
Director: Stefania Buonajuti
A look into the Dec 17th movement (International Day to
End Violence Against Sex Workers) and the problems of
human rights abuse, stigmatisation, violence, discrimination
and access to health that sex workers face in East Africa.
It is also a story of courage, freedom, emancipation and
hope. / 9 minutes / 2011 / UK, East Africa
Power
of the Collective
VAMP/Sangram
VAMP is a sex-worker collective (supported by the non-governmental
organisation SANGRAM) located in Sangli in the region
of Maharashtra, India. It was established in 1996 and
is managed and led by sex workers. VAMP began as an HIV
prevention project, distributing condoms and educating
people in their community about safe sex. 2 minutes /2014
/ Sangli, India
Save Us From the Saviours
“Save us from Saviours” is the slogan of the
Indian sex worker political action and service collective
Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP). VAMP has been providing
HIV and development interventions since 1996. In 2011
VAMP decided to commission a film to tell their story;
Save us from Saviours is the result. This short film is
about more than sex work; it offers a powerful message
to the development sector that rights and recognition,
rather than rescue and rehabilitation, offer a far more
lasting pathway to empowerment and equity. 10 minutes
/ 2011 /Sangli, India
Magic
Director: Michael Liu; Producer: Stijn Deklerck
Queer Comrades
The documentary "Magic" takes you to the daily
reality of Dami and Chengcheng, two trans sex workers
in Northeast China. One of the first documentaries ever
to focus on trans sex workers in China, "Magic"
is a funny and moving film that emits a powerful challenge
to current societal views on sex, gender, intimate relationships
and sex work.
"Magic" is the debut-film of director Michael
Liu. He took part in the LGBT Video Capacity Building
Training "Queer University" in April 2013, and
was one of 2 participants selected to realize a documentary
with full support from the Chinese LGBT webcast Queer
Comrades. Michael is a PhD graduate student at Northeastern
University (China). In 2011, he joined the AIDS Consultation
Center in Shenyang and became an active part of China's
civil society.
Directors Note:
This is a challenging film. The film challenges current
public conceptions of issues related to sex, gender, intimate
relationships and sex work. In my hometown in Northeast
China, I have a lot of transgender girlfriends. We have
a lot of fun together, and sometimes I let their fierceness
influence me. High heels, wigs, and eye-shadow can make
a male body look more beautiful.
I like sex work, and I admire experienced sex workers.
They are super smart and strategic. They look through
a person in a glance. They can tell a person's age, identity,
profession, and income level within a minute, and adapt
their demeanor accordingly. Isn't that magical? /33 minutes
/ 2015 / China
8:15PM
Remedy
by Cheyenne Picardo
Remedy follows A young woman from the underground kink
clubs of New York city into the world of commodified BDSM
where workers Are Paid to embbody the sexual and psychological
fantasies of complete strangers. Remedy quickly realizes
that her ‘habitual? submissiveness at home does
not prepare her for the pressures risks of this side of
the sexual service industry. Should she leave? or should
she stay and prove to everyone - including herself - that
she can handle it?
Filmmaker
Cheyenne Picardo notes: I wanted to add to the conversation
of sex work in media By creating A film that was honest
without being judgmental, where the viewer never felt
disconnected from the main character. I wanted to immerse
the viewer in the dungeon space from start to finish,
gaining insight only As fast remedy herself gets the information,
and No faster. while there is really such thing A ‘typical’
sex worker, does Not fit the common literary media stereotypes;
she is neither catsuit- wearing, corseted sexual superhero
nor victim of human trafficking. She isn’t desperate.
She also works as a private tutor for children and teenagers.
Pride gets her into the business, and pride keeps her
from leaving. That is all. / 121 minutes / 2014 / US
10:30PM
Prostitutes Creative Pursuits
“There’s only one very good life and that’s
the life you know you want and you make it yourself.”
- Diana Vreeland.
The last thing a sex worker is, is lazy. Sex work is WORK,
intense, difficult, emotionally and sometimes physically
exhausting work. We make something out of nothing - how
hard is THAT? When we hustle for survival and to get our
basic needs met, we are no less than magical; who else
in the world can, starting on Monday, by Friday pull rent
for the month, new shoes, nylons, winter coats for the
kids AND a week’s worth of groceries out of a week
of (episodic!) night work like a car-date hooker can?
Who else can manage to put themselves through grad school,
keep themselves housed, pay exorbitant stage fees and
tip out the bouncers by convincing punters to give them
money for the mere fantasy of buying sex like a stripper
can? Imagine the strength of will it takes to return to
the massage table day after day, smiling and wanking and
schmoozing clients who are also human but sometimes intolerably
racist, or sexist, or homophobic, or otherwise insensitive
or *gasp* small tippers. When we are blessed with better
earning days we can buy that most precious of all things:
time. Do we use this privilege of time to eat bon bons
and watch “Housewives?” Perhaps. And we damn
well deserve it if we do! But we also use our dearly bought
leisure time to pursue creative endeavors, such as making
media, art, rants or religion. This festival could not
exist if we did not wear out our knees, our backs, our
heels and mattresses to earn that golden space to do the
things that nourish our souls. Its a dirty job, but when
its good we dearly wish everybody could have it this good!
So hey, vanilla... listen to us tell our stories! You
might learn something.
Trouble Films Trailers:
Fucking Mystic & Lesbian Curves
Courtney Trouble
Mutli-award winning Courtney Trouble presents sex-positive,
embodied pornographic films representing the diversity
of desire.. Trouble films focuses on the creative involvement
of feminist, queer, and otherwise progressive-thinking
porn making. A local treasure! 3 minutes /2014 / San Francisco
Documentary of a Peep Show Girl
SunShine McWane
The inimitable Sunshine McWaine is Crayola the peepshow
girl! Catch her hard at work in her tiny booth, dishing
on the job commentary up dirty and at times deliciously
catty; she takes no disrespect and tells it like it is.
Don’t look ‘less ya wanna see!
SunShine McWane is an alumni employee of both the Seattle
Lusty Lady and the San Francisco Lusty Lady. She's the
only Lusty that worked at both Lusty Ladies when they
closed which is the saddest thing she has ever been proud
of. She also worked in the peepshow in the bottom of Deja
Vu in downtown Seattle for 2 years after the Seattle Lusty
closed. She graduated UW in Seattle with a BA in Interdisciplinary
Visual Arts in 2009. Butt as we all know a BA in Art is
more like a BS degree. She likes to work on creative and
comical projects such as this! She is currently a English
teacher in Japan. /5 minutes / 2011/ US
Philip Deal’s Video Sex Journal Fleshlight
Demonstrations
Joseph Kramer
Philip Deal: erotic yogi; experienced yoga teacher; Reiki
Master; and student of massage, modern meridian theory,
shiatsu and reflexology. In this excerpt from his extensive
video journals Philip demonstrates different practices
and positions for thrusting using a Fleshlight device.
8 minutes/2014 /US
Small Talk
Writer/Director: Nicole Witte Solomon; Producer: Chih-Hsin
Lee , Flavio Alves; Director of Photography: Jeanette
Sears
Meet Al. Al does phone sex with a little bit of temp work
on the side to pay the bills, just a single girl trying
to make ends meet in the big city, right? Well think again,
and watch things get complicated, when Al manifests an
extraordinary new power!
Nicole Witte Solomon is a writer and filmmaker located
in Brooklyn. She has written for HEEB, XOJane, Mommyish,
$pread, Tits and Sass and New York Magazine, among others.
She has directed videos for musical artists such as The
Shondes and Martin Bisi, and often partners with social
justice organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace and
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice on film projects.
Her short film Small Talk is currently screening at festivals
around the world and is the first film to win a Golden
Kleene award at the Arse Elektronika Festival on Sex and
Tech (2014). / 24 minutes / 2013 / US
Ecosexual Feast
Lola Clavo, Carol Leigh, and Joseph Kramer
Ecosexiality can be loosely defined as an expression of
sexuality inspired by nature, as a part of nature, or
actually having sex with nature (natural products, toys,
sunshine, water, etc.), a dating preference (ecosexuals
only dating other ecosexuals), and or the belief that
sex is natural and that all orientations and preferences
are valid and part of the vast erotic landscape of the
complex human being. This short film by Joe Kramer, Lola
Clavo and festival goddess Carol Leigh envisions loving
delicious daikon, zucchini, and bananas as more of an
erotic than a culinary endeavor! 2 minutes / 2011 / Oakland,
UK
Beautiful Monotony
Zahra Stardust
Bringing joy is just another day on the job for friendly
flexible professional dancer and sex worker activist Zahra.
Ordinary magic, for tips! 17 minutes / 2012 / AustraliaDirectors
Note:
Beautiful Monotony reflects the intimate encounters shared
between workers and customers within the privacy of a
lap dance room. The film positions sex work as work, depicting
the repetitive and monotonous aspects of erotic labour.
The performer executes the same tricks, variations and
combinations over and over in a way that becomes routine,
formulaic and familiar to the viewer, whilst doing everyday
activities – stretching muscles, taping up boots,
changing tampons, eating dinner, texting.
However the footage also reflects diverse customers, who
are shy, awkward, poised, raucous and (welcomingly) sleazy.
The dancer signs magazines, swaps shoes, compares muscles,
shares skills and has arm wrestles – whilst accepting
phone numbers, giggling and descending into hot pash-fests.
In this sense, the lap dance room is situated as a unique
space that fosters intimacies between strangers, and the
sex industry positioned as a place in which feminist practices
and queer desires manifest.
The film is a piece of endurance art – it was filmed
in one cut over a period of three hours, and portrays
erotic labour as specifically skilled work. The stamina,
flexibility and strength involved are obvious, as well
as moments of negotiation, discussion and emotional labour.
The film aims to problematise divides between what is
considered performative and authentic, real and fake,
pleasure and work – currently the subject of discussions
around what constitutes feminist pornography. The dancer’s
work is clearly work, but she also derives ‘real’
sexual pleasure from the experience, as evidenced by the
final masturbation scene. She exists within a certain
time/place/persona, but she is also ‘real’
– up close and personal, customers can her scars,
smell her sweat and hear her voice.
In a context in which the sex industry continues to be
stigmatised and scapegoated, Beautiful Monotony aims to
reflect that the sex industry, for many queers and feminists,
workers and clients alike, has been a place of learning,
solidarity, belonging, identity – and also a place
of refuge.
Sex Work and College Students
The OK Project
Director: Dailey; Writer, Producer: Yasmine X
The pressures of relentlessly rising tuitions take a toll
on the relationships and shape the choices of two university
students in this affecting short. ‘It is reported
that even in the most primitive societies there was transactional
sex,’ states the director. / 9 minutes / 2015 /
San Francisco
Behind the Cow
Producer, Director, Art designer: Sion Shankel; Scary
Cow Productions, San Francisco
Filmmaker Sion Shankel is a member of this indie film
co-op focused on helping its members network with filmmakers,
make films together, provide budget, screen movies at
theatres. This short is tongue-in-cheek intro testament
to Shankel’s bold style and creativity. Sion was
a sex worker from 1987-2013. A sex positive feminist filmmaker,
she uses those work experiences to inform all of her film
work And lives out loud shamelessly about her long work
history. She owns NatterCast which podcasts several TV
show and films. She reviews film through the lens of a
sex worker and has done at 100 episode special about her
work. / 10 minutes / 2012 / San Francisco
Don’t Pray for Us
AJ Dirtystein
AJ Dirtystein’s dreamlike work-in-progress is a
visually sensual reinterpretation of pagan ritual and
faerie tales in which wishes are granted to the faithful
and the humble. Watch a pale, perky tattooed priestess
dance the sacred circle in toe slippers and not much else;
she performs a literary tinged blood sacrifice with her
stapler that gives her the power to make all her friends’
dreams come true. / 22 minutes / 2014 / FranceAJ Dirtystein’s
Note: "Don't Pray for us" is a tribute to the
unknown, a search for self and the world by destroying
the barriers of the unconscious and of the consciousness
but also the destruction of geographical boundaries. Thus,
by restoring a sexual tinge to the sacred ritual and by
making of the pagan ritual, a place of higher individual
power output, this video performance throws into question
the boundaries between the personal and the collective
by the transmission and "Participation mystique"
(in a Jungian sense ) in the performative act. The artistic
action works through the transfer, that is to say, in
a way different than the authority of rhetoric; and nobody,
facing a given story, a tale, an action or a work of art,
is passive: that's via the look that passes the relationship
to another, but also by the pictures what can convey our
unconscious. These latter interact with each other, making
the dream, the thinking, the fantasy, the elsewheres that
shape our imagination and redefine the limits of our present,
when these are pushed to be realized and assumed. What
could be more beautiful than a body that reveals to the
world nor as a foreign for oneself, nor as stranger for
others?
AJ Dirtystein is a visual artist, performer, sex worker
and holds a Ph.D. in Literature. Her questionings about
the representation, incarnation and transgression of the
female body through performance art, articulate a poetic
aesthetic which leads furthermore to many political questions.
Photography, video, art performance and paintings suggest
that flesh should be questioned before the body, the underground
world of the psyche before reality and individual power
before any notion of authority. Between the sublime and
the abject, this alt-world shared "here and now"
also refers to the pagan ritual where the mental arena
becomes tangible and allows us to converse with our collective
subconscious. Its forgotten archetypes push physical and
psychic boundaries, and so upset the over-compartmentalized
representations of femininity. Witch, female-wolf, whore,
bitch or mythical goddess... The archetypal female reverses
the Judeo-Christian values and strikes the unconscious
with a radical message that advocates individual and carnal
freedom, love and plurality of sexuality, reminding us
too that death is always present... Her thesis was on
"Performing the wild woman, between she-dog and she-wolf.
The path of a Virginie Despentes and Clarissa Pinkola
Estés reader". It's a study of the performance
as an experimental and sacrificial testimony in artistic
creation.
Holy MILF
Director/Producer/Writer: Pavini Moray; Editor: Carol
Leigh
"Holy Mother I'd Like to Fuck" celebrates magick,
sexuality and the Earth. The film documents an Ecosexual
ritual held in the wilds of Cascadia, invoking the elements
of Air, Fire, Water, Earth and Spirit. Capturing on film
diverse bodies and expressions of gender and sexuality
as well as exquisite natural settings, Holy MILF will
expand your erotic landscape.
San Francisco based writer, teacher and somatic sex coach
Pavini Moray helps queer, gender-fabulous and fat clients
claim their desire and live their full erotic potential.
When not blogging about sex and intimacy at www.emancipatingsexuality.com,
Pavini can be found putting on glitter and dreaming up
pleasure revolutions. This is their first film. 30 minutes
/ 2015 / San Francisco
Additional
Movie Venues:
On May 20th at the Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck,
Oakland we will be screening the following work
in conjunction with an evening of discussions:
Sex
Work IS NOT Trafficking
Becky’s Journey
Sine Plambech
24 min. 2014, Denmark
Beautiful Becky has attempted to travel from Benin, Nigeria
twice, and voluntarily. She braves rape and starvation
to cross closed borders in search of a better life as
a sex worker in Italy. The film is about migration, sex
work and human trafficking seen from the perspective of
Becky. Becky tells her story in her own words, a fascinating
alternative take on migration for the purposes of sex
work that is never heard in the mainstream press.
Being a Refugee is Hard
Muchaneta with SWEAT
This first person short is one of four stories of the
lives of sex workers that came out of a four day workshop
held by Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force
in Johannesburg. Widowed Muchaneta is a refugee of the
economy of her home country, where working as a secretary
she still cannot earn enough to feed her children. She
migrates to South Africa in hardship and learns how to
make ends meet. 3 minutes / 2010 / South Africa
Unraveling
Anne Elizabeth Moore & Melissa Mendes
2014, US
Images from the illustrated story: “The threads
that connect the sex industry to the garment industry
are many... But if you look closely you can figure out
how to unravel them”
Collateral Damage: Sex Workers & The Anti-Trafficking
Campaigns
Carol Leigh
Anti-trafficking is a sacred cow, but behind this humanitarian
concern is a century-old movement that historically reflects
xenophobia and prostitution abolitionism. Clips from the
work-in-progress. 8 min. / 2015/ San Francisco
Doin’ It for Themselves: The Hunt Sisters
Feminist Whore 10:33 minutes, 2011, US
Extremely informative rant about two sisters, female scions
of the uber-conservative and filthy rich Hunt family.
Helen and Swanee Hunt have conservative Christian values,
and more money than any ten million of us will earn in
our little lifetimes… all of which they use to advance
their agenda regarding the silencing and general disenfranchisement
of sex workers. Spoiler alert!!: The revolution will NEVER
be funded through the many foundations these two own.
-LM
On May 18th we will be screening the following work in
conjunction with our
Sex
Worker Audience Forum: Sex Workers in Cinema
Whores on Film
Juliana Piccillo
This segment is from a work-in-progress documentary that
explores the representation of sex workers in American
Cinema. /5 minutes/ 2015 / US
Fists are for Fucking, not
Fighting: An Open Letter to my Lovers and Mentors
Zahra Stardust and Ms Naughty
Activist Zahra shares how she has evolved as a performer,
as a lover, and as an activist through ‘transgressive’
sex, queer feminist theory, and the sex worker rights
movement. Strikingly visual (she’s a squirter!!).
-LM /11 minutes / 2014 / Australia
A raw, open and erotic exploration of the highs and lows
of living and breathing sex work politics. This film is
a celebration and tribute to the communities, lovers and
work that keep us fierce, strong and unapologetic, plus
a window into the moments where political advocacy leaves
us burnt out and vulnerable. Self-care, served with a
side of masturbation and squirting.
Zahra Stardust is the 2014 Feminist Porn Awards Heart
Throb of the year, 2014 Adult Industry Awards Best Porn
Actress and 2012 Eros Shine Awards Best Adult Star. She
is an Australian Penthouse Pet and PhD candidate, writing
her dissertation on the legal regulation of pornography.
Her films combine art, porn and politics and have screened
at festivals around the world. She loves fisting, body
fluids and intimate encounters with strangers.
|
