For additional information about prostitution issues, research and activism, go to:

Sexual Politics, Prostitution Issues Video Collection I

Please call 415-751-1659 or write info@bayswan.org for further information.
Notice: Many of these videos are now available for free at The Scarlot Harlot Video Festival website for individuals only. Optionally you can purchase DVDs.

Contact info@bayswan.org for information about institutional /theatrical release and rights.

Fed Ex Shipping Options
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This should be arranged BEFORE you make your purchase,
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Write info@bayswan.org

Also see:
Sexual Politics Collection II:
Additional videos ($50.00 individual- $200/Institutional)
exploring prostitutes and AIDS/HIV, interviews with streetworkers and violence against prostitutes.


Specifically recommended video for classes:
OUTLAW POVERTY, NOT PROSTITUTES -$50.00 individual- $200/Institutional (Available online at no cost)

This is the ideal video for highschool or college classroom presentations about issues of prostitution. This documentary of the 1989 World Whores' Summit in San Francisco features prostitutes and activists from around the globe discussing human rights as they effect prostitutes. VISIONS OF U.S., AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE award winner , FILM ARTS FESTIVAL (San Francisco), INTL. WOMEN'S DAY VIDEO FESTIVAL, DEEP DISH SATELLITE, at DC-TV's WHAM, & both the CHICAGO & SAN FRANCISCO LESBIAN & GAY INTL. FILM FESTIVALS . Includes the music video "Free Whores" which features the World Charter for Prostitutes' Rights. (23 minutes-1992)

BLIND EYE TO JUSTICE:-$50.00 individual- $200/Institutional (email first) (Available online at no cost)
HIV+ Women in California Prisons
narrated by Angela Davis
An experimental documentary, this work is unique as it portrays the injustices of the California prison system as seen through the eyes of HIV+ women incarcerated in this system. Animation and found footage create a powerful montage that evokes the atmosphere in women's prisons--the violations as well as the hope and courage of prison activists who fight quietly, and from the inside. Screened at WOMEN IN THE DIRECTOR'S CHAIR (Festival and Tour), SEATTLE HUMAN RIGHTS FESTIVAL and many others; award winner at BLACK INTERNATIONAL CINEMA in BERLIN. -- (34 minutes-1998)

SEX WORKERS TAKE BACK THE NIGHT --$50.00/individual- $200/Institutional (Available online at no cost)

Scarlot Harlot attends San Francisco's Take Back the Night (December 1990), a march in remembrance of the fourteen female college students murdered in the previous year's Montreal Massacre. Clashes and controversy emerge between sex-workers and anti-porn feminists about sex, violence and men- with an emphasis on the perspectives of strippers and sexual rights activists. An excellent feminist discussion piece. W.O.W. Cafe (N.Y., N.Y.) VIDEO WITNESSES FESTIVAL OF NEW JOURNALISM (HALLWALLS, Buffalo, N.Y.), LOS ANGELES LESBIAN AND GAY FILM FESTIVAL (28 minutes- 1991)

WE ARE NOT A FORCE TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY -$50.00 individual- $200/Institutional (Available online at no cost)

Two funky and fun bits of street journalism- interviews with about sex, body image, fatness and compassion from a fat dyke's street party (15 min) plus SCARLOT HARLOT'S INTERSTATE SOLICITATION TOUR-Scarlot and P.O.N.Y. (Prostitutes of New York) engage in civil disobedience on Wall Street.(15 min) SPEW 'ZINE CONFERENCE, L.A.C.E., VIDEO WITNESSES FESTIVAL1992, LOOKOUT-DC TV (N.Y.) L.A. FREEWAVES FESTIVAL & TOUR. (28 minutes-1991)

SPIRITUAL WARFARE: THE G.H.O.S.T.* CAMPAIGN-$50.00 individual- $200/Institutional (Available online at no cost)

*Grand Homosexual Outrage at Sickening Televangelists- Documents the Halloween confrontation as televangelist Larry Lea and his "prayer warriors" invade San Francisco to exorcise the demons from the Bay Area. Includes TV news, in your face interviews, and street theater by the Pink Jesus, Sadie, Sadie, The Rabbi Lady, and Ms. Harlot, dancing nude with a live snake. Wild and shaky! FILM ARTS FESTIVAL & CINEMATHEQUE (San Francisco), VIDEO WITNESSES FESTIVAL OF NEW JOURNALISM award winner. (Hallwalls, Buffalo, N.Y.) (30 minutes-1990)

WHORES AND HEALERS -$50.00 individual- $200/Institutional (Available online at no cost)

Primarily useful in health-service oriented classes and programs, the compilation addresses the role of prostitutes as teachers. Includes: CAL-PEP, an insider's look at a model HIV prevention/education program designed and implemented by prostitutes and ex-prostitutes for prostitutes; POCAAN (People of Color Against Aids Network); THE YEASTIE GIRLZ' safe sex rap,"PUT A LID ON IT." (28 minutes-1991)

CHOICE?-$50.00 individual- $200/Institutional (Available online at no cost)

As seen nationally on the 90's 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 women's movement. (28 minutes-1992)

WHORE ON WHORE (Available online at no cost)

Directed by Victoria Schneider . See her website! . Produced by Carol Leigh. Starring Victoria Schneider. Street worker Schneider directed this autobiographical snapshot of her own philosophical musings and stories. The director says, "Usually movies about ladies who happen to be prostitutes are just about them being prostitutes. That's the problem. What's different about our movie is that it's about the whole person." (7 minutes-1995)

DIE YUPPIE SCUM -$50.00 individual- $200/Institutional (Available online at no cost)

Leigh's unique guerrilla-style coverage of events has met its match in this impressionistic melange of events and happenings during the 1988 Anarchist Conference in San Francisco." San Francisco Bay Guardian
Definitions of anarchy plus the aftermath of the Berkeley riots. Musical interludes by the YEASTIE GIRLZ, BLUE VULVA UNDERGROUND, DEAD SILENCE and MOURNING SICKNESS. Winner ATHENS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 'Best Documentary', finalist at HOMETOWN U.S.A., FILM ARTS FESTIVAL (S.F.) and the 2nd INTERNATIONAL FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL IN KUPIO, FINLAND. (30 minutes-1989)

Check the following link for book recommendations and more.

More about the maker:
Documenting the Bay Area's multicultural and sexually diverse political and artistic communities, THE SCARLOT HARLOT VIDEO FESTIVAL collection explores the Bay Area's historic cultural and artistic underground from an irreverent and intimate point of view. In a time when mainstream media has become a mouthpiece for corporate interests in America, Scarlot Harlot provides a fresh, irreverent perspective. Challenging conventions of sexuality, aesthetics, technology and the prevailing social system, Leigh has been a pioneer in the development of television as a tool for activism and social change. Three time American Film Institute award winner, Leigh is a recipient of grants from the Film Arts Foundation, San Francisco, the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fund (Chicago) and Art Matters (New York) in addition to numerous screenings and awards in the U.S. and around the world.

She has appeared on THE DONAHUE SHOW, NIGHTLINE, GERALDO, ACCESS AMERICA, and on THE LATE SHOW with Arsenio Hall (and on numerous even sleazier shows). Ten chapters of her writing appears in SEX WORK, published by Cleis Press. Originally from New York, Leigh currently resides in The Bay Area. As a performance artist, Scarlot Harlot appears at San Francisco clubs and theaters.