Red Umbrella Éireann, a grassroots collective of current and former sex workers campaigning for the decriminalisation of sex work, are organising the second edition of Red Umbrella Film Festival, Ireland’s sex worker festival. They introduce this year's programme below.
Earlier this year, a film about a sex worker won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Anora follows a stripper from New York as she meets and impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Once his parents find out, they fly over to have the marriage annulled. Spoiler: at the end of the film, Anora is divorced and left behind.
There is little original about this: despite its efforts to challenge negative stereotypes about sex workers, Anora still follows a familiar trope – the portrayal of a sex worker as sex worker and sex worker only. We don’t get to see who she is: she exists by virtue of her profession. The film has been dedicated to 'all the sex workers around the world’ – but without knowing who they are, what their struggles are, their needs and desires, the dedication feels performative when not followed by a call for change, for decriminalisation, for real-life policy shifts to improve the living and working conditions of sex workers around the world.
Red Umbrella Film Festival’s first edition two years ago focused on representation of sex workers in media, taking the opportunity to share sex workers’ stories in the hope of challenging stigma. This year, given the total failure of the current legislation around sex work in Ireland, the emphasis is more directly on the pressing need for decriminalisation.
We don't need more films about sex workers being 'saved’ by rich clients, nor do we need more sex workers dying in the first act.
Over four days, we will be showing films spotlighting sex workers' lives and resistance – highlights include Womxn: Working, a gripping documentary about sex workers and activists in South Africa fighting for decriminalisation while exposing systemic violence and stigma. Mala Reputacíon follows Karina, a 45 year old sex worker, in her efforts to establish a sex workers union in Uruguay with her colleagues. Civil rights leader Bernadette McAliskey and other activists will join us after the film for a conversation on organising and unionising outside of traditional workplaces.
Red Umbrella Film Festival launches in the Light House Cinema on Thursday 16th October with the Irish premiere of F**ktoys, in which queer sex worker AP goes on a chaotic journey through Trashtown, USA to get $1000 and a sacrificial lamb to lift a curse. The festival’s short film programme includes A Place To Belong, about a trans woman’s struggle with ageing and belonging in Myanmar, and Thriving, a surrealist exploration of dissociative identity disorder from the perspective of Black, non-binary, disabled artist and former sex worker Kitoko Mai.
We don’t need more films about sex workers being ‘saved’ by rich clients, nor do we need more sex workers dying in the first act. We’re tired of tropes: it’s time for change.
Red Umbrella Film Festival runs October 16th - 19th at Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin. Film screenings will be complemented by workshops, panel discussions, and a Saturday night event with stripper bingo, pole dance, and a sex worker fashion show - find out more about this year's programme here
The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
