Carol Leigh

The Celluloid Bordello

Since the dawn of cinema, sex workers have been portrayed (mostly negatively) by filmmakers. 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 how perpetuating stereotypes in media affects real peoples' lives.

Our Bodies Our Business

A documentary collage of sex worker activist interventions created from footage captured by HIV/AIDS activist at the Fifth International AIDS Conference in Montreal in 1989.

Compulsive Practice

For the 2016 Day With(out) Art, Visual AIDS commissioned COMPULSIVE PRACTICE, a video compilation of compulsive, daily, and habitual practices by nine artists and activists who live with their cameras as one way to manage, reflect upon, and change how they are deeply affected by HIV/AIDS. This hour-long video program was distributed internationally to museums, art institutions, schools and AIDS organizations.

Mutantes: Punk Porn Feminism

Mutantes sheds light on a feminism that was little talked about in France. This documentary comprises of a series of interviews conducted in the USA, Paris and Barcelona, and documents from the archives about the political action of sex workers, queer activists and post-pornographic performances.

Mother's Mink

Animated comedy starring famous prostitute, Carol Leigh (also known as Scarlot Harlot) and her mom, about Leigh's efforts to obtain respectability as an artist, and to secure funding for a video about her mother's mink. In a parallel tale, Leigh's mom (and co-star) Augusta reminisces about how she "saved and suffered" to buy a mink stole to impress her mother.

Not Guilty, Not Victims

"Ni Coupables, ni victimes" ("Not Guilty, Not Victims") is a polyphonic conversation gathering the words of some of the protagonists at the European Conference on Sex Work, Human Rights, Labour and Migration, Brussels (2005). They speak of the complexity and nuances of the sex industry and their lives: the challenges and the struggles of being a sex worker in Europe today, the repressive policies affecting their lives, and the strategies of resistance enabling them to do their work, build their desires and plan their futures.

Women of Vision

Documentary that highlights 18 women and covers a period of time from the 50's to the 90's. The women chosen were selected because they represent the real diversity within both feminism and independent film and video. They range in age from 65 to 25. They are black, white, Puerto Rican, Yugoslavian, Asian American, biracial. They are straight, gay and bisexual. What they share is a need to express their own interpretations of what American culture is and could be and a belief that this work is made particularly powerful through the media.

Whore Culture

Documentary about the 1993 "Whore Culture: A Festival of Sex Work" event in Toronto.

Sluts & Goddesses Video Workshop

A humorous, absurd, heartfelt and worshipful look at sex. Features many exotic ways to stimulate sexual and sensual pleasure, like flagellation with oak leaves, body contortions, tattooing, piercing, shaving and gender play.

Outlaw Poverty, Not Prostitution

This documentary of the 1989 World Whores' Summit in San Francisco features prostitutes and activists from around the globe discussing human rights as they effect prostitutes.