San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival

Welcome to the Sex Worker Fest! The last festival was in May 2019, but we skipped our next scheduled date, 2021 because of COVID and other tribulations. We are now planning for our next Festival which would be 2023! We have no special info yet, and not sure whether we will have local screenings. Please don't submit work now, as we are in planning stages. Visit http://www.sexworkerfest.com/ for info about our Festival. The San Francisco Bay Area Sex Workers Film and Arts Festival is a biennial event, established in 1999 to provide a forum for the accomplishments of sex worker film and video makers and to screen works about sex workers and the sex industries from around the world. The Sex Worker Festival provides an opportunity to recognize and honor prostitutes, dancers, porn performers and other sex workers, who have historically been a dynamic part of arts communities. To date, the Sex Worker Festivals have screened many hundreds of hours of videos and generated much interest in the media. See our archives (in progress at http://www.sexworkerfest.com/videos/ Films and videos for the Sex Worker Festival focus on sex workers' rights; organizing efforts and working conditions for dancers; global sex work and sex work as a labor issue on the international agenda; sex workers as artists; anti-racism and anti-oppression in sex worker communities; sex work and gender identities focusing on LGB/transgender/queer sex workers; sex education, sex art, porn and erotica; and portraits of strippers, prostitutes, dommes, madams and more. We encourage diverse participation, diverse perspectives emphasizing under-represented voices in our movements and communities. For those who don't know, our beloved curator and close friend, Laure McElroy, passed away in August 2018. Director Erica Fabulous and founder Carol Leigh worked with many with local sex worker artists to support the Sex Worker Festival in 2019, on it's 20th Anniversary (launched in 1999). Through the last several years, Carol Leigh has been managing cancer, then COVID happened. Our organizers took a break, but are planning for a 2023 Festival. After much thought and many struggles we held smaller version of our usual 10 day Festival in 2019. For the 2019 season we presented a marathon screening day at the Roxie, an opening event at Artists Television Access, a screening with Failed Films at Dungeon Art Gallery and online screenings for those who offer permission. We will also be offered our highlight event for sex workers, Whore's Bath, which has proudly grown to events featured around the country. Theatrical director and performer, Jovelyn Richards presented a rare solo performance on Friday night. You can contact us directly for more information at swfest@bayswan.org.