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just want to ask somebody, 'Uh, what do I do? Who do I talk to? Where's the handbook?"' She and

Arts Fest gathers

its strength
ByAmber Schadewald
culture@sfbg.com extra-satisfying.

All but a select number of events during the festival are open
cases, sex

SEX There is no water cooler. There are no memos.

In most

workers aren't

walking into an
office on Monday mornlngs or even late Saturday nights to punch in
and gab with coworkers about the last shift. Sex work is a umbrella

term pertaining to a multitude of professions, including but not limited to prostitution, porn, burlesque, modeling, and stripping. Most sex
workers are independent contractors, freelancers, and individuals

running their own businesses. So in a wdry, the seventh San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival (May 20-29) serves
as the city's whore company party,

run with the intention of unifying a community in an ironically isolating line of work. Because whatever your profession, talking to a coworker about the daily grind is always
24SAN FRANCTSCO BAYGUARDIAN

we're not talking about an exciusive trade show here. Organizers have packed nine days with musicals, cabarets, workshops, and parties, so whether you're in the business, out ofthe business, curious, or supportive, this sex.fest will do the trick. The decision to base the festival around this kind of openness was intentional. Once the workday is done, where does a sex workei go to compare notes, swap secrets, laugh, or cry? The stigma around sex work can make talking to friends and family who don't pole dance or fi1m masturbation for pay awkward. Chloe Camilla, a member of the festival's planning committee, is still relatively new to the sex industry. She's been doing a mix of porn and modeling for the past few years and remembers how intimidated she felt in the beginning. "It's strange you'ie shooting your first anal scene and you

to the public

- employer. nity

her friends have been talking about a training manual with chapters on things like how to file your taxes, develop a marketing campaign, and learn screen tricks. "There should be a'Welcome to porn, here's what to expect when you show up on set'book." Camilla will be teaching "The Art of Webcamming", a workshop she put together in response to peer requests. Webcams are a grelt introduction to the sex industry: cheap, easy, and gatekeeper-free the lnternet is an equal opportu-

putting together

"Everyone can find their own market and niche. Theret room for all bodies and genders out there," Camilla says, hoping her class will get people online and making money fast. Festival founder Carol Leigh, a.k.a. longtime pro-sex activist, sex worker, and performance artist Scarlot Harlot, started the festival in 1999 to help foster supportive peer relationships while simultaneously urging hookers to use their collective voice to speak out on their own behalf and fight margin-

alizalion. "I'm basically Grandma Scarlot

SFBG.COM

TNDEPENDENT, LOCALLY-OWNED

I MAy18-24,2011

year's San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival includes

community building of GLITTERACTION! A Radical Queerlesque Cabaret (left) and a screening of Trans Entities: The Nasty Love of a.nd Wil (right), a documentary porn directed by Wil Diamond.
STILL FROM TRAT{S ENITI'Es BY DARREN MAYHEM

Harlot now," she smiles, her crimson lips matching the shiny paint on her fingernails. After years of
marching up and down capitol
steps,

Leigh realized the creative

potential ofthe people rallying

around her.

Itt what she calls the "whore's view:" iA,s a group that's oppressed with a stigma, there's alcind ofwisdom that grows from that stigmati zation. Because we're not accepted, we might not necessarily buy into mainstream values. Theiefore, we do and see things differently," Leigh says. Through art or film, sex workers can find their voice even if they cant be open about their proeye

festival organizer Erica Fabulous admits that closeness can depend on where you work and whom you work with. Getting politically active sex workers to attend is a snap, but festival organizers hope to reach past clubs and into the streets, pulling in workers from every corner of
the industry.
"Sex work is raced and classed just like anything else that's why I m so proud of the diversity of viewpoints thatwill be represented during the festival," says Lori

McElroy, the festival's film curator.

Nearly 40 sex-worker-themed

flicks will play at this year's festival

during a one-day marathon. Stories from Canada, Holland, Germany, Cambodia, and the U.S. will lay bare the work and lives of strippers,
whores, masseuses, peep show gals, erotic performance artists, survival street workers, and escorts.

fession because ofchild custody laws or a conservative day gig. Now 60, with more than 30 years of advocating for sex workers' rights behind her, Leigh says the festival's relevance has expanded to respond to the community's current needs. The back-to-back workshops at SomArts Cultural Center on N{,ay 27 most accurately reflects

The diverse viewpoints echo

another of the festival's underlying missions: "These films are a glimpse of what's happening out there"- the people who are out there," McElroy says. "I want people to walk away from this festival knowing that there isnt just one way to think or talk about sex work." sree

this year's current list ofhot topics: selFcare and eco-sex, building bonds between male sex workers, and love advice for partners and pals ofsex workers. Although parts of the city's sex worker community are tight-knit,

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