Live Nude Girls UNITE!
Dir: Julia Query, Vicky Funari.
Video, 69 min., 2000 (WP)
The sex industry has long been criticized for its exploitation of women. What people rarely discuss, however, is the actual working conditions sex workers must endure. The ladies at San Francisco’s Lusty Lady had to face an increasingly hostile work environment — that is, until one woman was fired, and her co-workers decided to strike. Filmmaker and fellow Lusty Lady Julia Query, along with Vicky Funari, chronicles the struggle in which the AFL-CIO is sent in and before too long, it’s time for some good old-fashioned labor vs. management activism, complete with negotiations, lockouts, and arbitration. Query parallels the labor struggle with her own attempt to come out as a stripper to her mother, a longtime prostitutes-rights advocate. Live Nude Girls shows the women employed at places like the Lusty Lady peep show as intelligent, articulate women who, despite what one may think about the sex biz, are entitled to the same protections and rights as any other employees. Thu, Mar 16, 6:45pm, Alamo Drafthouse
This article appears in March 17 • 2000.