The San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival premieres this sex worker anthem, Courtney Trouble’s “The Burnout,” a music video by Scarlot Harlot and Courtney Trouble in English, Chinese and Thai (at http://blip.tv/file/714732)
In this video, a ‘day in Courtney’s life’ parallels her journey from phone sex to sexual representation/pornography as well as her political journey, interwoven with sex worker demonstrations, clips and photos from organizations listed here.
This music video reflects a personal and local story, and a political story that reaches out to individuals and organizations which resist discrimination and work towards social justice and human rights for sex workers. Many find a common voice in Courtney Trouble’s frustration, pride and defiance.
“How soon I got over, waiting alone at home for the telephone. Why do you care…you can’t see me…don’t wanna know me at all but I know you wanna get off.”
Trouble’s frustration evolves into a recognition of her mission to ‘seize the means of production.’
“It’s just like anything else, it’s just a job, but we’ve got the guts to profit off our own skin. They won’t acknowledge us until we own enough to control it. They won’t respect us until we give them no other choice.”
The makers wish to thank and acknowledge the sex worker activists around the world for their work and inspiration.
Also visit Sex Workers Present at blip TV
from APNSW, to view many sex worker videos
including Taking The Pledge
from the Network of Sex Work Projects.
Courtney Trouble has also been an artist, singer, designer, and photographer for many years. Her work can be viewed at www.courtneytrouble.com.
Filmmaker Carol Leigh AKA Scarlot Harlot has been a sex worker and activist since the late seventies. A poet and performance artist, she coined the term “sex worker” in 1979. She was recently awarded a Creative Work Fund Award to compile her sex worker documentaries as part of the library at the Center for Sex and Culture (www.sexandculture.org). “Unrepentant Whore: The Collected Work of Scarlot Harlot” was published by Last Gasp. For more info, visit her websites at www.bayswan.org/penet.html and www.unrepentantwhore.com (2009-4:33 min.)
