Films and discussion on
Sex Work, Trafficking and Labor Migration:
Views from Inside The Sex Industry

7 PM June 5th, Friday
Artists Television Access
992 Valencia, San Francisco

We recommend that you purchase tickets in advance! This is a small venue!

Puchase tickets here: http://www.sexworkerfest.com/swfest2009/ATAtickets2009.html


Contact: 415-287-3114

 

In the 21st century we witness a return to a focus on trafficking and slavery in the context of discussions about commercial sex. Indeed, 'trafficking' functions as a metaphor for prostitution. This evening's presentation includes a number of movies which offer extremely candid accounts of the experiences and travails of migrant sex workers. This content is rare, including a US Premiere from Taiwan, as is the discussion. Why do some human rights experts say that the US 'sponsors trafficking?' These stories do not glamorize, nor condemn sex work. Rather they challenge stereotypes of migrant sex workers from Southeast Asia, widely stereotyped as 'sex slaves.' They present the viewer with a rare understanding of women who travel across borders to work in the sex industry. This year the San Francisco Sex Worker Festival is honored to share eight short works from the collection of sexworkerspresent, the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers, including a number of APNSW works. These powerful productions and collected work provide a valuable library of first person accounts of sex worker's lives and organizing efforts in Asia and around the World.

Suggested Reading:

The following materials provide some background on rights-based approaches to trafficking.

Several reviews of Laura María Agustín's, Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry, include interviews and additional material about this issue. Spiked, The New Statesman, and Reason.

Global Alliance Against Traffick in Women's 'Collateral Damage' reviews the impact of anti-trafficking measures on human rights in 8 countries. This anthology emphasises the critical need for a re-assessment of anti-trafficking initiatives around the globe in order that human rights do not get written off as ‘collateral damage’ in combating human trafficking.

For more about this discussion, visit: http://www.bayswan.org/traffick/

The Movies:

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)


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)


Happy Endings

Director/Producer: Tara Hurley; Editor: Nick Marcoux; Sound Design: Timothy O'Keefe
This guerilla style documentary follows the life of “Heather” over three years as she works in a massage parlor, while the Rhode Island legislators debate over what they have strategically called a “loophole” which that allows prostitution behind closed doors. The movie features interviews from massage parlor workers (from Koprea?) in Rhode Island as they are confronted with the racism and xenophobia of local anti-prostitution activists. This film also features interviews with many Rhode Island’s movers and shakers including Providence Mayor David Cicillin Steve Brown of the ACLU and anti-prostitution zealot, Donna Hughes.(US, 80 min- 2008)


To See or Not To See

Director: Tsai Yi-Feng
(US Premiere screening) 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. This movie is a must see for all those who suspect that behind the sensationalistic trafficking headlines, there is a deeper and more complex story about the struggles of sex work immigrants and the choices women make.(Taiwan, 64 min.-2003)

Director's Statement
"I filmed “To See or Not to See” the only way I could. Illegal, fake cross-Straits marriages, the women coming and going in all the places offering sex services-the camera recorded everything, but I had to pretend I didn’t see a thing."
And just like me, these women, confronted by the male gaze, by a moralizing public discourse, by daily smear attacks-they too how to pretend they don’t see. Facing the cameraman and the photographer, they also often pretend not to notice. Facing their parents, their families, even themselves, they have no choice but to pretend not to see."

Screenings/Awards
2004 Taiwan International Documentary Festival-Nominated for Image Taiwan Award
2003 WuShanTou Film Festival - Opening Film, Taiwan
2004 Taipei Film Festival - Jury's Special Prize