videos by and about sex workers

This is a list of recommended videos, primarily for educational purposes and classroom use. If you are interested in obtaining any of the videos below for yourself or your classes, please write to penet@bayswan.org.

CENSORED AT MICHIGAN

These videos were part of the censored prostitution video series 'PORN'IM'AGE'RY:Picturing Prostitutes, presented by Carol Jacobsen at the University of Michigan Law School.

STREET SEX
Carol Jacobsen (54 minutes)
Profound and empowering collection of interviews with street workers in Detroit. "Street Sex" makes clear the need for reform and advocacy. (1993)

THE SALT MINES Carlos Apparicio and Susana Aiken (30 minutes)
Intelligent and sensitive multi- award winning documentary about Puerto Rican homeless transgender prostitutes in New York City. (1993)

MY OWN PRIVATE SEATTLE; TRANSVESTITE HOOKERS
Randy Barbados (4 minutes each)
Starring Rue Paul, two slick, short videos feature interviews with male and transgender prostitutes in Seattle.

PORTRAIT OF A SEXUAL EVOLUTIONARY Veronica Vera (28 minutes)
This candid autobiographical work documents the career of Veronica Vera, activist and writer. The video begins with a description of her Catholic upbringing, leading to her exploration of the erotic arts and culture in New York. This challenging, bold video was the piece that precipitated the censorship of Carol JacobsenUs "PORN'IM'AGE'RY," the feminist prostitute art exhibit at the University of Michigan Law School. Contains fascinating footage of VeraUs presentation at the Meese Commission.


OUTLAW POVERTY, NOT PROSTITUTES Carol Leigh aka Scarlot Harlot (20 minutes)
(See further information about videos by Carol Leigh.) Documents the 1989 World Whores Summit in San Francisco. Prostitutes and activists from Thailand, the US., Holland, Brazil Netherlands, Canada and Australia discuss stigma working conditions and human rights as they effect prostitutes.
"Listening to the women's experiences, you definitely get that tip of the iceberg feeling. The women speak from the heart and with a keen understanding of just where lies the bottom line of sexual politics." - San Francisco Bay Guardian
Winner of American Film Institute's Visions of U.S. Contest. Screened internationally (1992-20 minutes)


Feminists, Friends, Independent Producers

KISS ON THE MOUTH
Lillith Video Collective (28 minutes)
Created by a feminist video collective, this sympathetic, though 'removed' work documents the complaints by women who work on the street in Brazil. (1985))

MY BODY'S MY BUSINESS Vivian Kleiman (16 minutes)
Prostitutes teach safe sex within their community. Street workers discuss safe sex practices. This fast paced video is constructed as a safe sex promotional tool for prostitutes, encouraging safe sex as a safety issue. Highly charged, interesting portraits of prostitutes. Focuses on street workers and safe sex with clients rather than in personal relationships.(1993)

Gwendoyln

PROWLING BY NIGHT
Gwendolyn (10 minutes) Excellent animated compilation of stories by street workers about police abuse and safety/legal issues, made by a sex worker in Toronto. Funded by the National Film Board of Canada, created in conjunction with Maggie's Outreach Project in Toronto.

COMMUNICATING FOR THE PURPOSES OF PROSTITUTION Gwendolyn (12 minutes) Raw and honest AIDS prevention/education made by a sex worker through Maggie's Outreach in Toronto.

Guerilla Docs and Portraits

WHORES AND HEALERS Carol Leigh (30 minutes)
A compilation of works addressing prostitutes' role as sex educators including clips from the sixth international AIDS conference, a rap song by The Yeastie Girlz (Put a Lid on It), Scarlot Harlot's Safe Sex Slut, POCAAN (People of Color Against AIDS Network), Cheryl Overs and more. (1991)

SCARLOT HARLOT'S INTERSTATE SOLICITATION TOUR Carol Leigh (15 minutes)
Silly and fun, Scarlot and Prostitutes of New York (PONY) descend on Wall Street, soliciting (as an act of civil disobedience) and interviewing unlikely and diverse bystanders. (1991)

FREE WHORES
with Tracy Tief and Mourning Sickness (6 minutes)
Industrial music version of "Sex Trade Worker," performed at the 1988 International Anarchist Conference in San Francisco, from documentary "Die Yuppie Scum," by Carol Leigh. Includes text of World Whores Charter from International Committee for Prostitutes' Rights.(1992)

WHORE ON WHORE Directed by Victoria Schneider. Produced by Carol Leigh. (7 minutes) Starring Victoria Schneider. Schneider directed this autobiographical snapshot of her own philosophical musings and stories about working on the streets. Says the director RUsually movies about ladies who happen to be prostitutes are just about them being prostitutes. ThatUs the problem. What Ts different about our movie is that itUs about the whole person.S (1995)

Strippers, Peep Show Performers, Lap Dancers and Pornographers

A PART OF THE GODS Meg Knowles (30 min)
Candid and loving, an early work by videomaker Meg Knowles portrays her sisterUs work as a stripper in the context of her role as a family member. Interesting and affirming. (1992)

WAC STANDS UP FOR STRIPPERS Carol Leigh (1994)
A fairly rough piece featuring WAC women and other feminists discussing alliance with strippers at a protest against the labor-exploiting Mitchell Brothers. An encouraging document at feminist support for sex workers. Basically rough footage. (23 minutes)

STRIPPERS PROTEST MITCHELL BROTHERS Carol Leigh (30 minutes)
Raw footage of strippers protesting labor violations and mistreatment by Mitchell Brothers. (1994)

SWAM: SEX WORKERS ADDRESSING MACKINNON Carol Leigh (20 minutes) This is watchable, interesting and entertaining. Sex workers protest outside Herbst Theater before Catherine MacKinnonUs appearance. Should have been called Sex Workers Against MacKinnon, but we were being nice. (1994)

STRAIGHT FOR THE MONEY Hima B. (58 minutes)
Presented from a pro-sex worker point of view, Straight For The Money: Interviews with Queer Sex Workers is about the observations and experiences of eight lesbian and bisexual women who work as lapdancers, peepshow dancers, & prostitutes in San Francisco. Bold and articulate, these women discuss the impact of sex work on their personal lives, the feminist politics of sex work, and the need for a broader understanding of a greatly stigmatized and stereotyped occupation. Featured at International Lesbian and Gay Festivals around the world; at Toronto Whore Culture Festival; from India to America: New Directions in Indian-American Film and Video, Whitney Museum NY; Paris Lesbian Film Festival); Bombay, India, New Delhi and Whitney Biennial.

Feminism and Sex Work

CHOICE?
Carol Leigh (28 minutes)
As seen nationally on the 90Us Cable Network. A San Francisco pro-choice rally provides the backdrop for a series of thought provoking interviews about control over our bodies and self-determination including drugs, surrogate motherhood, sex work, and racism within the womenUs movement.(1992)

SEX WORKERS TAKE BACK THE NIGHT
Carol Leigh (28 minutes) Scarlot Harlot attends San FranciscoUs Take Back the Night March 1990, organized in remembrance of fourteen female college students murdered in Montreal. Clashes and controversy emerge between women- sex-workers, anti-porn feminists and others about sex, violence and men- with an emphasis on the perspectives of strippers and sexual rights activists. An excellent feminist discussion piece. Presented at THE INTERNATIONAL WOMENUS DAY VIDEO FESTIVAL (MA.), W.O.W. CAFE (N.Y.), VIDEO WITNESSES FESTIVAL OF NEW JOURNALISM (HALLWALLS, Buffalo, N.Y.); LOS ANGELES LESBIAN AND GAY FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL. (1991)

Actual Sex

MASTURBATION MEMOIRS (Vol. 1 & 2)
Scarlot Harlot and Dorrie Lane (30 minutes) "For me, the discussion of feminist porn is secondary to actually creating the imagery," says director and whore activist cum porn star Carol Leigh aka Scarlot Harlot. In an groundbreaking exploration of sexual imagery from a "feminine" perspective, Masturbation Memoirs is uniquely lyric, comic and political, marking a new wave in womenUs pornography. In this first volume of a four volume series, three "middle aged" women tell their stories about early practices masturbating, followed by explicit, XXX-rated demonstrations. Recontextualizing the pornographic image, each woman invokes her most familiar cultural context: Scarlot Harlot (300 pounds of porn star) masturbates amid images of Americana. Dorrie Lane (vulvagoddess) demonstrates her esoteric masturbatory skills including ejaculation, and beautiful Guadeloupe San Francisco descends from her virgin pedestal with the aid of a hi-tech Japanese vibrator. Vol.2 features Annie Sprinkle, Juliet Carr and Anna Marti. Produced by House O'Chicks; Directed by Carol Leigh; Edited by Carol Leigh and Dorrie Lane; Soundtrack by Sue Kasper; shot in VulvaVision(. (1995)

SLUTS AND GODDESSES
Annie Sprinkle and Maria Beatty (50 minutes)
A humorous, absurd, heartfelt and worshipful look at SEX Guided through this unique adventure by sexpurt extraordinaire Annie Sprinkle and the'transformation facilitators,' will explore the ancient and forbidden secrets of female sexuality. Starring Scarlot Harlot, Diviana Ingravallo, Kelly Web, Trash, Chris 'Teen,' Jade, Amy Harlib, Jocelyn Taylor and Barbara Carrellas. (1992)

NICE GIRLS DON'T
K. Daymond (13 minutes)
Female ejaculation hi-art flick in super 8mm black and white film starring philosophy professor Shannon Bell (author Reading, Writing and Rewriting The Prostitute Body). Very artsy, and challenging. One of my favorite movies. (1990)
For information about obtaining the videos in this catalog, write or call:

Carol Leigh
Box 210256
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 751-1659
penet@bayswan.org