Thank you so much for all of your contributions. We start heavy pre-production on the day our campaign ends, so the sooner we get there the sooner this show is on the road. If you cannot make a monetary contribution, follow us on here and Seed & Spark to keep up to date and see where you can get involved along the way!
Have a great week!
One Day As a Prostitute
(photo from Louis And The Brothel, 2003)
The story of Concussion doesn’t differ too much from the iconic Belle De Jour, the tale of the bored and unfulfilled housewife who seeks the unknown and exciting. However, this time round it’s in a modern context, centred around a lesbian couple who are battling with a power struggle over their employment and their kids. As the title gives away, the film erupts just as Abby (Robin Weigart) suffers a blow to the head, and we are immediately subject to the nagging of her wife Kate (Julie Fain Lawrence).
Though on first impression the film may seem like a try-hard compilation of underrepresented minorities, with a male builder thrown in for balance, it is really refreshing to see a modern, unconventional lifestyle combined with an unconventional plot line. Despite the very heightened and intense sex scenes between Abby and her clients, the film appeals to more than a homosexual audience; this isn’t exclusively a ‘gay’ film, but a cinematic and clever work that teases out the selfishness and repressed desires in all of us.
We won’t always post news articles on the blog, so when we do, you know that they’re good..
The Economist takes an in-depth look at sex work adapting to a wealth of online possibility, addressing the social change that we have recently undergone by using no-strings-attached apps like Tinder. As well as some pretty astonishing statistics (you get around 33% more if you swallow, rather than spit!) they also address the growing presence of very well-educated individuals to sex work.
“As paid-for sex becomes more readily and discreetly available online, more people will buy it. A greater awareness may develop that not all sex workers are the victims of exploitation. The very discretion may also mean that the stigma persists. But, overall, sex workers will profit. The internet has disrupted many industries. The oldest one is no exception.”
Read the full article here! Thanks to Kseniya for sharing this with us!
Despite prevailing in surrealist movements, Luis Buñuel’s films are a staple in any critically acclaimed film list. When discussing prostitution and motion pictures with film scholars, each one directed me straight to the masterpiece that is Belle De Jour. The film’s title translates rather plainly to “Beauty Of The Day” which really does sound more like something an Irishman would cackle whilst boasting about a fish he caught rather than a French film classic, so we won’t call it that again.
Straight off the mark, we’re into a scene thats odd and captivating; Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve) and her husband Pierre (Jean Sorel) is a bored and unfulfilled housewife with the perfect life. Her husband is a doctor, she is rich, beautiful, and works at an upscale brothel for no apparent reason other than ‘because she can’.
Despite being filmed in 1967, many viewers complain that the film is outdated and boring. I admit, it’s no Avengers, but for audiences 50 years ago, bourgeosie-cum-prostitutes made for very entertaining viewing, at a time when films that had been banned for the past 30 years were finally coming out of the can again. I, myself, still admire Buñuel’s approach to realism, weaving in his methods of surrealism and fantasy into an everyday psyche. To see an upscale brothel from 1960s Paris is pretty cool, too.
Séverine maintains an eerie, Barbie-like stance and a porcelain expression of indifference throughout the film. To see her smile is almost a shock. At first, I wasn’t sure whether this was simply a characteristic of Deneuve’s acting style, but upon watching some more of Deneuve’s work, I realise it’s actually a mark of incredibly good acting, one considered even iconic!
Séverine is so disconnected from her reality and wishing aimlessly on bizarre and unadulterated fantasies that we can’t quite reach her true persona until she finds herself- and by then it’s too late. Her final ‘john’ is Marcel (Pierre Clémenti), the silenced rebel. His air of mystery (cough) seduces Séverine to make a decision that she will live with for the rest of her life. I have serious trouble believing in this character, either down to poor acting or poor casting- but he did work with some very recognized European directors in the 1960s so I shall let you be the judge of that!
Belle De Jour is a pristine, polite film which encapsulates the contrast of upper class living with the filthy mind of a 1960s unfulfilled housewife in Paris. it’s a great film.
The Seed & Spark funding page for One Day As A Prostitute is finally LIVE! We’re so excited! Head over to the page to learn more about the project, watch our pitch video, take a peek at our perks and if you like what you see- donate some money! If you know anyone who would love our doc, it would mean the world to us for you to share it with them!
Thank you!
Wow! We are blown away with the messages and questions we are receiving concerning One Day As A Prostitute! We’re so glad you are all interested in whats to come.
The project is currently in development, which is the most integral phase for this documentary. The people we meet will shape the finished product, and it’s imperative that we meet as many people as we can that are involved with sex work. So over the next week we will be needing your help, every single one of you! Keep your eyes peeled!
We all love Louis Theroux, even if you don’t know who he is. Apparently he’s 44 but I find that hard to believe, because he doesn’t age. He is timeless. Stuck passively, politely and a bit awkwardly between every social issue in Western culture. Anyway..
Besides his notorious documentaries on the Phelps family/Westboro Baptist Church, he has covered a very vast range of issues, ranging from rehabilitated pedophiles to religious cults and even transgender children. In 2003, he filmed Louis And The Brothel, set in a legal brothel in Reno, Nevada. The documentary hears some very personal stories from those in sex work, and presents us with the bizarre, hotel-esque world of legal prostitution.
Despite being very fond of Louis’ work, this documentary seems to vigorously reinforce the stereotypes of not only the prostitute, but the vapid American woman. There were a couple of very relatable women, particularly those who were new and acclimating themselves to the environment as we did.
Hayley, as seen posing in a bikini above, seemed to be erratic, untamed, and rude. Her behaviour reminds you very bluntly that it often takes a head-on crash of serious problems to end up in a profession like this one. The delirium of such an environment is definitely present in this objective, but peculiar, documentary on legal prostitution.
