Event

LIVE NUDE GIRLS UNITE!

LIVE NUDE GIRLS UNITE!
Dir. Julia Query and Vicky Funari, 2000
USA, 70 min

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29 - 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
DIRECTOR JULIA QUERY IN PERSON

No contract, no pussy.

"My knees are killing me" a dancer purrs to the camera in a sultry voice, capturing the irony of the strip club. Part of a dancer's job is to look like she's having fun, but stripping is hard work even in the best conditions, and at the Lusty Lady peep show, the conditions are anything but: no job security, rampant discrimination against women of color, and an unsafe working environment.

After a particularly harrowing incident involving a violent patron and an indifferent response from management, the dancers at the Lusty Lady voted to form a labor union. LIVE NUDE GIRLS UNITE follows the dancers' organizing efforts: hiring a lawyer, negotiating a contract, and debating whether or not to strike.

The film is co-directed and narrated by Julia Query, who was part of the workers' bargaining committee. Query injects a warm humor into the narrative, also weaving in her complex relationship with her mother, a public health advocate known for her extensive outreach with street-based sex workers. Julia is hesitant to tell her mother that she works as a stripperuntil Julia's organizing leads mother and daughter to present at the same conference on prostitution.

Part of the series: SEX WORK IS WORK, which also brought you WORKING GIRLS in July.