Ahsley Dupre & Larry Flint

I watched Ashley Dupre on 20/20 on Friday.  I feel bad for her, because she made a bunch of bad choices.  It seems like she might be on the right track now.  She doesn’t seem to be capitalizing too much on this.  She has turned down photo spreads in magazines and book deals.  It seems like she just wants to be left alone.  Maybe this is her first step in doing that.  Of course I do think it is interesting to note the fact that she could not answer a few questions under advisement of her lawyer.  If Spitzer was not charged, she should not be charged either.  I know it is the norm to charge the “prostitute” and not the “john” but in a high profile case like this maybe the norm will not be the norm.

Another, more interesting thing I watched on TV this weekend was Larry Flint: The Right to Be Left Alone. I am sure if you want to see this documentary you can find it on IFC, they usually replay their films over and over, (but I would like to suggest people buy the film to support the film maker).  This documentary was interesting on many levels, but in one interview was with a woman who had posed in Hustler.  She said that she had done interviews with indie film makers in the eighties and you would never see those films because she told them that she was a willing participant in pornography.

This struck me because my film is on Asian massage parlors in RI where prostitution is legal.  Every time you hear a story on the news you hear how these women are forced into “sexual slavery” and my film does not agree with the news.  One thing that Larry Flint does say in the film is he watched the news not for what the news shows but what the news leaves out.  Well, that is basically my whole film.  It is 80 minutes of what the news has left out over the last 3 years.  I hope there are a large number of people like Mr. Flint that believe in our first amendment right and believe the news doesn’t cover the whole story.

Is Mayor Cicilline Joining Obama?

Yesterday I heard something interesting.  Rumor has it Providence Mayor David Cicilline will not be running for Governor of Rhode Island in 2010.  Mayor Cicilline is actually in talks with the Obama transition team about joining the next president’s administration.  I do not know what position the mayor has been offered.

It is interesting to note that President-elect Obama has recently banned discrimination in his transition teamfor sexual orientation and gender expression, and is expected to continue this policy into his term (hopefully terms) as president.

I overheard this yesterday, and I don’t know how this will effect me or my film.  On one hand I am happy about Obama’s policy.  I have personally faced discrimination when buying a house with my partner.  Laws and policy are a good place to start so people can’t get away with any kind of  bias or “isms”.    On the other hand, I couldn’t get the film played in few places in Rhode Island because people are afraid of retribution of the City.  Now, the Mayor is going to be in national politics.   I can’t wait to see what position he gets offered.

Sex, Sex, Sex

I think that is what people think this film is all about.  SEX.  Sex or sex work, prostitution, human trafficking, all of these loaded words.  It is sad because the film is so much more.

I am a telephone tech.  Like almost every film maker, I have a “real” job.  One that pays the bills.  There is a guy who I work with who is married to a woman who is going for her green card.  She came to this country when she was three.  Unfortunately when she was a child her parents never bothered to finish whatever paperwork they needed to do for her citizenship.  She is twenty five now, and married to this guy I work with.  She has been in the long drawn out process to become a citizen for years now.

On Friday her mother died.  Because her mother is going to be buried in Senegal, and she hasn’t finished getting her full residency, she isn’t allowed to go to the funeral.  My heart goes out to her.

This situation also came up in my film.  “Heather” married her husband “Chris” on 9-11.  (It seemed odd to me that someone would be married on a Tuesday, but they were.)  The entire time I was filming I was mostly concerned with “Heather’s” reaction with the prostitution laws.  In reality she was mostly interested with her immigration case.  In every interview all she wanted to talk about is how she wanted to go home to Korea to see her mom.  She needed to relax, replenish and then come back to the US to finish her immigration hearings.

I was talking to my college roommate about “Heather’s” immigration case.  She thought it was odd that “Heather” was in hearings for seven years, when she works with a a woman who was unmarried and only had one hearing and became a citizen.  I asked her where that woman was from and she said England.  It makes me think that if you are from a “white” country and go try to immigrate they welcome you with open arms.

Craig’s List

The Attorney Generals of 40 states united with Craigs list to “Monitor” the erotic section of craig’s list.  This should be interesting.  I watch CL all the time.  I have to admit I even reported an ad once.  There was a woman who was in soliciting herself, pictured on a bed, basically in underwear.  You could see she took the picture herself.  You could also see a 3 or 4 year old child in the background.  I send her ad in to DCYF.  I figured if she didn’t have enough sense to take that sort of picture with her or a child out of the room, she needed to be reported.  I think that children  are important, and we do need to protect them.  With that being said, I am not sure how I feel about this whole new tactic with Craigs list.  I think this could lead to entrapment.  I am sure the ALCU will have issues with this.  It will be especially interesting to see how they enforce this in Rhode Island where prostitution is legal.  I know all or most of the spas use CL for advertising.  When I would look at the ads I would think it was interesting because besides the spas the single prostitutes, some of them, actually most of them were women advertising themselves, so I thought it was good because it took the pimp out of the system.  So now we have more men regulating women?  Maybe I am not seeing this right.