San Francisco's 4th Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival

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For further info, email swfest@bayswan.org
Event: COYOTE, SWOP and ISWFACE present
The 4th San Francisco Sex Worker Festival May 1- 8th, 2005
Festival Director: Carol Leigh AKA Scarlot Harlot; Associate Producers: Madeline Lowe and Erica Berman

Dates: May 1- 8th, 2005; Sex Worker Art Opening May 1st; Film Screenings May 6 & 7; Whore College May 4. Full schedule on http://www.bayswan.org/swfest2005/schedule.htm

Locations: Roxie Cinema, 3117 16 St., SomArts Gallery 934 Brannan Street, Femina Potens 465 South Van Ness; Epicenter Gallery 398 11th St. and others.

Contact: Carol Leigh, Festival Director
415.751.1659 swfest@bayswan.org

The 2005 Sex Worker Film & Arts Festival features films by and about sex workers, live performance by sex worker artists, festival events include: Leather and Latex Sex Toy Bazaar, After Hours, the sex worker art exhibit curated by Jane Cassell with work by Annie Sprinkle (among others), a Harm Reduction Forum in collaboration with the St. James Infirmary for sex workers and those who provide health services, SWOPs political forum to promote decriminalization of prostitution and Barbary Coast Street Theater, and ëWhore College.í This day of classes for sex workers includes a Do-It Yourself Webcam Workshop, Marketing Sex Work, Safer Oral Sex Techniques, Self-Defense and more. More info at http://www.bayswan.org/swfest/whorecollege.html.

Sex worker rights, community building, outreach, education and art are our purposes. Over the past decade sex worker art and culture festivals have sprouted up around the globe from Calcutta to Taiwan to Montreal, from Portland to Cleveland and Arizona. Sex worker film, art and performance events span the globe, chronicling contemporary sexual politics and mores with a vision that penetrates our hypocrisies.

Our international guests this year include Janelle Fawkes President of Australiaís Scarlet Alliance, the organization of sex workers organizations ( http://www.scarletalliance.org.au/ ), Elena Jeffreys, Australian Performance Artist, and Wang Fang Ping, Taiwan Electoral Candidate and Secretary General of COSWAS , Taiwan's Coalition of Sex Workers and Supporters, U.S. guests include the Canal Street Madam, direct from New Orleans, Jeanette Maier , Norma Jean Almodovar (Cop To Call Girl) , Tucson poet Kymberly Cutter and many more. Performances range from spoken word, to burlesque and experimental theater.

The Sex Worker Film and Video festival has screen over 150 films since 1998. This years films include Sheila Malone and Annie Sprinkle's Amazing World of Orgasm, "Louisa Achille's "The Naked Feminist," Kristie Alshaib's "Other People's Mirrors", Jill Morley's "Stripped," Gangstresses by Harry Davis with music by L'il Kim, shorts by Rosy Boyer, "Porn Star Pets" by Margie Schnibbe among many more. Films focus on sex; prostitutes' rights; organizing efforts and working conditions for strippers; more sex; global sex work and sex work as a labor issue on the international agenda; sex workers as heroes and heroines; sex workers as saints; sex workers as jerks and perverts; sex work and gender identities; queer sex workers; sex education; sex art; sex panic; sexual orientation; sexual identity; porn and erotica; portraits of strippers, prostitutes, doms, madams and much more.

This year's festival will include collaboration with New College Experimental Theater program and will feature performances by Carol Queen, Kitten On the Keys, Kitty Kastro (Tranny Talk TV), Harlem Shake Burlesque, Big Burlesque: The Original Fat Bottom Revue, David Sterry (author of Chicken), Kirk Read, Dee Dee Russell, Scarlot Harlot (Unrepentant Whore), Stacey Swimme, beat -ho and many more. Raffle-atrix, Annie Danger will also emcee beat-ho's Tuesday night performance, "Thrust". Special guests at the festival also include Tucson Sex Worker Arts Festival's Juliana Piccillo and Erin Whitfield.

'Whore College' is an educational day for sex workers teaching health, safety and business skills including workshops such as 'Marketing for Sex Workers, taught by FABULOUS' and Melissa Gira's 'Do Your Own Webcam;' The effort to provide health, academic and occupational training for those in the sex industry is gaining momentum around the world. On May 4 th sex workers will graduate from this day's intensive with a diploma in "Sex Work Studies."

Political events include Sex Worker Outreach Project Rights Forum and a "Be Nice To Prostitutes" Demonstration; The Art Exhibit curated by artist Jane Cassell with the Center for Sex and Culture features work by Talullah Bankheist and Duran Ruiz; and Aphrodite's Bazaar (featuring "Lushorchid," Cambodian Sex Worker collaborative project by Elizabeth Sy), Sluts Unite T-Shirts from Scarlot Harlot, Good Vibrations' special preview and more crafts and literature from our communities.

Special Shows and Guests:

Performances at the 2005 Sex Worker Festival include an opening party at Epicenter Gallery (398 11th St.) on May 1st starring Kitten on The Keys, with special guests Sadie Lune and Annie Sprinkle, and the closing party on May 8th, a Burlesque extravaganza at SomArts with Big Burlesque, Harlem Shake and Lipstick Conspiracy. On Thursday, May 5th "boa: new whore culture" will launch a webzine hosted by Melissa Gira with a reading of sex worker artists including Tucson’s Kymberly Cutter, LA's Gennifer M. Hirano, Lady Monster and a ‘whore open mic.’

ìCop, Condoms and Handcuffsî

Roxie, 8 PM Friday, May 6th
Jeanette Maier: Canal Street Madam live from New Orleans
Robyn Few: Berkeley Ballot initiative to decriminalize prostitution
Norma Jean Almodovar: author COP to Call Girl, former LA Police officer turned pro
For links to guest bios visit http://www.bayswan.org/swfest/biosCCHshow.html
This presentation summarizes recent cases against women who have been targeted by our state and federal governments. From Keystone Cops to conspiracy theories, these stories and videos will reveal sordid corruption, bizarre misconduct and general waste of your taxpayer dollars!

Why A Sex Workers Arts Festival?
From artists’ models to muses, from hetaira to geishas, sex workers have been vital participants in arts communities through the centuries. Despite their influence on the arts and culture, polite societies rarely acknowledge the contributions of the demimonde who have also been painters and poets themselves. A growing number are working in contemporary media, film and video, and performing in solo, ensemble theater and in burlesque revues.

For more information about tickets, show schedule, parties, performances, panels and forums, workshops, special guest stars, festival passes, etc. visithttp://www.bayswan.org/swfest.html or telephone: 415-751-1659

Sponsors include Good Vibrations, the Center for Sex and Culture, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc., The M & M Fund, Spectator.net, the Coalition on Prostitution (a Sponsored Project of The Women's Building), Tranny Talk, Grand Opening, Cyprian Guild, Film Arts Foundation, Media Alliance, Dee Dee TV and Trannyfest.

About Festival Director Carol Leigh AKA Scarlot Harlot
Carol Leigh has been a sex worker and activist since the late seventies when she coined the term "sex worker" in 1979. Leigh is webmistress at Prostitutes Education Network http://www.bayswan.org/penet.html, the most extensive sex worker rights site on the web. Leigh was seated on the San Francisco Board of Supervisor's Task Force on Prostitution representing San Francisco's Commission on the Status of Women. She won many awards for her videos including three at the American Film Institute. She teaches multimedia production at several schools in the Bay Area including the Center for Electronic Arts. Last Gasp released Leigh's new book, Unrepentant Whore: The Collected Work of Scarlot Harlot, Spring, 2004.