March 1-3, 2024
Friday, March 1
PANELS (all panels are free to attend)
WHERE: University of Arizona, Gender and Women's Studies Conference Room, 925 N. Tyndall ave.
1-2:15pm Theory in the Flesh, Cripping Sex Work: On Madness, Disability, and Sex Work in the Borderlands, (Yolteotl Gomez, MFA, PhD candidate, Dharmakrishna Mirza, distinguished graduate fellow at OSU and PhD candidate and R. Rose Reza, MLIS.
2:30-3:45pm A Conversation on the International Human Rights of Sex Workers, Dr. Ivana Radačić, human rights activist & academic, former member of the UN Working Group on discrimination against women and girls. Ivana was the lead drafter of the recent report "Eliminating discrimination against sex workers and securing their human rights", William Simmons, Professor of Gender & Women's Studies and Director of the Human Rights Practice program at the University of Arizona who just published an extensive legal analysis of sex workers rights' cases in international law entitled "Rethinking Dignity and Exploitation in Human Trafficking and Sex Workers’ Rights Cases" and has written several books and dozens of articles on the human rights of marginalized communities, and Dr. Penelope Saunders, co-Executive Director of the Best Practices Policy Project, a national organization dedicated to the health and rights of sex workers and trans people. She has established numerous organizations nationwide focusing on health and rights, as well as having worked in Latin America and Australia. She led and participated in community based research projects such as Move Along in the District of Columbia, the national Nothing About Us Without Us project on HIV, and national reporting for the Universal Periodic Review. She is also a member of the New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance.
4:00-5:00pm Representations of Sex Workers of Color in Film and TV (Monica Jones of The Outlaw Project, Kristen Lovell, Filmmaker The Stroll, N'jaila Rhee, New Jersey Red Umbrella Project)
Friday Feature: The Stroll, (director Kristen Lovell in Person!)
WHERE: The Screening Room, 127 E Congress Street
WHEN: Friday, March 1 @ 7pm (reception 6:30pm)
$10 (free to sex workers)
When Kristen Lovell moved to NYC and began to transition, she was fired from her job. Like many transgender women of color during this era, she began sex work in an area known as "The Stroll" in the meatpacking district of lower Manhattan. Reuniting her sisters to tell this essential New York story from their first-hand experiences, Kristen’s intimate narration and interviews bring an astonishing array of archival material of bygone New York from the 1970s through the early 2000s to life. Nominated for a Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award.
12pm Saturday - Special Rough-Cut Preview - Manifesting Monica Jones
After being arrested for charges that are in violation of UN human rights standards, Monica Jones challenges the constitutionality of the Arizona laws limiting her freedom of expression and sexuality. This is a decision that unhinges her world and propels her to redefine her personhood and place in society.
Monica Jones is an inspirational leader for communities of sex workers and trans people of color who was born and raised in Phoenix. She has been advocating for gender justice since 2010. In 2013, after speaking at a public action protesting rights violating arrests in Phoenix she was herself arrested. In partnership with local and national organizations, Monica Jones created a campaign that garnered global attention about the injustice of the statutes that facilitated arresting her for “walking while trans.” This successful two year long campaign opened the way for discussion in the media about both the laws used to criminalize trans people and the complicity of “diversion” programs such as Project ROSE. Her case is now frequently cited in legal and policy briefs in support of strategic litigation and campaigns in other jurisdictions. In 2016 she founded the Outlaw Project prioritizing the leadership of Transgender Women, BIPOC, gender non-binary, migrant and sex worker folks and she is creating an innovative tiny homes housing project in Tucson for trans people.
WHERE: The Screening Room, 127 E Congress Street
WHEN: Saturday, March 2 @ 12pm
$10 (free to sex workers)
Saturday, March 2, 2pm - Fly in Power - Afternoon Feature
WHERE: The Screening Room, 127 E Congress Street
WHEN: Saturday, March 2 @ 2pm
$10 (free to sex workers)
Fly in Power spotlights the work of Asian migrant massage and sex workers of Red Canary Song, a mutual aid, abolitionist collective. We follow the stories of Charlotte (a Korean massage worker/poet), KhoKhoi (bodyworker/healer), and Prof. Elena Shih (Brown University, global human trafficking researcher) as well as the broader Red Canary Song community. The film is a glimpse into their practices of care, autonomy, and survival against the oppressive systems that face Asian massage parlour workers and sex workers. 78mins
4pm, Saturday, March 2 - Shorts
Stiletto - A sadistic client follows a young stripper home after work, only to find out she was more than he bargained for.
Lady Los Angeles is a narrative short by writer/director Antonia Crane
It is her first directorial debut. Lady Los Angeles’ world premiere was in Seattle i at the TRANSlations film festival & also screened at OUTFEST 2023 .
Sugar - (director Alyssa Brayboy in person) Banner is on his search for a Sex Worker. He stumbles across Alora, who is usually up for anything, but she quickly learns Banner isn't a typical client.
WHERE: The Screening Room, 127 E Congress St
WHEN: Saturday, March 2 @ 4pm
$10 (free to sex workers)
De La Rosa - A sex worker's visual prayer of acknowledgement to lineages of grandmothers in the form of vulnerable identity confessions and earthly offerings.
We Are Everywhere - This documentary explores the lives of five sex workers who lived and worked during the beginning of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic in Portland, Oregon. It highlights their lives and how difficult it is to work in our high risk field during a global pandemic. This film provides a rare opportunity for sex workers to discuss their own stories with dignity, compassion, and care.
Saturday Feature Film, The Celluloid Bordello
Saturday Whore Stories - 6pm - The Cliterati,
featuring Ruby Starr, Dale Corvino & Danny Gold
WHERE: The Screening Room
WHEN: Saturday, March 2 @ 6pm
Since the dawn of cinema, sex workers have served as muses to movie-makers. From white slavery pictures like The Girl Who Went Astray to countless dramas and rom-coms such as Midnight Cowboy, Risky Business and Pretty Woman, hookers, hustlers, call girls, street walkers and strippers have been staples of the silver screen. They are fantasy figures, cautionary tales, or punchlines, brutalized, killed off, scorned, sometimes rescued and almost always represented as if no sex worker is in the audience.
The Celluloid Bordello brings sex workers to the cinema. With equal parts historical overview, critique, and homage, this eye-opening film lets real-life dommes, escorts, porn stars and hustlers tell you which films they love and which they hate, which get it right and which miss the mark, and, most importantly, how perpetuating stereotypes in media affects real peoples’ lives. 85mins
WHERE: The Screening Room, 127 E Congress St
WHEN: Saturday, March 2 @ 7pm
$10 (free to sex workers)
