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First Run Features presents a documentary by Juliana Piccillo
THE CELLULOID BORDELLO
Available for Streaming & on DVD January 10th

 
"A deep, cerebral dive into the cinema of sex work."
-Front Page Confidential

Since the dawn of cinema, sex workers have served as muses to movie-makers. From the early white slavery pictures like The Girl Who Went Astray from 1900, to countless dramas and rom-coms such as Midnight Cowboy, Risky Business and Pretty Woman, hookers, hustlers, call girls, street walkers and strippers have been staples of the silver screen.

Cinematic sex workers are often fantasy figures, or cautionary tales, or just punchlines. They are brutalized, killed off, scorned, sometimes rescued and almost always represented as if no sex worker is in the audience. Even in well-meaning documentaries reality is distorted by filmmakers (almost always non-sex workers), who are determined to show trauma, violence and pathos rather than the resilient and thriving communities that are the norm for many sex workers.

The Celluloid Bordello brings sex workers to the cinema. With equal parts historical overview, critique, and homage, this eye-opening film lets real-life dommes, escorts, porn stars and hustlers tell you which films they love and which they hate, which get it right and which miss the mark, and, most importantly, how perpetuating stereotypes in media affects real peoples' lives.
 
"Wonderful...eye-opening!
This timely film shows elegantly how sex workers are portrayed in film and, similarly, society.”
-Radical Art Review

"Having former and current sex workers and activists commenting on the portrayals of their community in the popular media is genius."
-Front Page Confidential
The Celluloid Bordello
A documentary by Juliana Piccillo
86 minutes | color | 2021 | English
Featuring Annie Sprinkle, Carol Leigh, David Henry Sterry, Gabe Vigil, Juba Kalamka, Nicholas de Villiers & Peter Keough

Streaming Premiere & DVD Street Date: January 10, 2023
Streaming platforms include Amazon, Apple TV & iTunes

SRP: $24.95 | DVD UPC: 7-20229-91825-1 | DVD Catalog #: FRF918251D
Director's Bio: Juliana Piccillo

Juliana Piccillo has been a sex worker, journalist, university instructor and trailer salesperson. She's the mother of two children, a filmmaker and a writer. Her documentary, I was a Teenage Prostitute, screened in the Tribeca Film Festival, the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival, Women in the Director's Chair, and others. Her writing is featured in the anthology Hos, Hookers, Call Girls and Rent Boys and the literary journal Drunken Boat.
 
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