About the Film

“Sex Work: It’s Just a Job” shares the voices of an incredibly diverse group of sex workers discussing the ways in which they would benefit from decriminalization rather than current prohibitionist approaches including “end demand” or the “Nordic Model.”

The film tracks organizing efforts to decriminalize sex work in New York State, including the successful campaign to repeal the discriminatory “loitering for the purposes of prostitution” law, which was used primarily to criminalize trans people in low-income immigrant communities.

The film features a variety of organizing strategies including parades, mutual aid efforts, legislative lobbying, protests, and community speak outs interspersed with personal narratives from sex workers about the harms they have experienced from police and the ways in which prohibitionist approaches make them less safe. In addition, Michigan District Attorney Eli Savit and Economist Manish Shaw provide expert analysis about the harms of criminalization and the need for decriminalization.

When we allow police to regulate our sexual lives, we inflict tremendous harm on some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Young people, poor women, LGBT youth, and transgendered people who rely on the sex industry to survive and even thrive are forced by police into the shadows, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

Tami Kashia Gold

Producer, Director, Writer

Tami has been a multidisciplinary artist for over three decades. She produced Every Mother’s Son; Juggling Gender: Politics, Sex and Identity; Out at Work: Lesbian and Gay Men on The Job; Passionate Politics: The Life and Work Of Charlotte Bunch; RFK In The Land Of Apartheid; The Last Hunger Strike: Ireland 1981; among others. Tami’s films have screened at the New York Film Festival; Sundance; Tribeca Film Festival; Whitney; Museum of Modern Art; Chicago Institute of Art and on PBS/POV, HBO, America Reframed. She is a recipient of a Rockefeller; Guggenheim; Fulbright; NY/NJ Video Arts Fellowships; AFI Independent Filmmakers Fellowship; New York State Council for the Arts and awards from the Audience Award from Tribeca; Documentary Media Award from GLAAD; Excellence in the Arts Award from the Manhattan Borough President; Cine Golden Eagle Award; HUGO Award; Gold Plaque from the Chicago International Film Festival.

Bienvenida Matías

Producer, Co-Director, Writer

Bienvenida is a pioneering New York-raised Puerto Rican filmmaker with a long career as a producer, director, writer of independent films and for public television. Her films have screened in the US, Mexico, and have been funded by the Latino Public Broadcasting, the Jerome Foundation, St. Paul Companies: Leadership Initiative in Neighborhoods, National Endowment for the Arts, and ITVS LINCS program. Her film El Corazón de Loisaida was recognized by the New York Public Library as part of their major film preservation initiative, Twentieth Century Mirrors: America Through the Eyes of Independent Filmmakers. Matías has written essays on film, arts, and the Latinx community for diverse publications. She is a founding board member of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers and In-Progress, a St. Paul, MN, media center. Her current work-in-progress is Coquito, a meditation on Puerto Rican history via this quintessential Christmas drink.

Alex S. Vitale

Producer

Alex has written about policing and have consulted both police departments and human rights organizations internationally for over 30 years. It’s Just a Job is based on his book entitled The End of Policing. Alex Vitale is a Professor of Sociology and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. He also serves on the New York State Advisory Committee of the US Commission on Civil Rights. Vitale is the author of City of Disorder: How the Quality-of-Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics. Vitale’s academic writings on policing have appeared in Policing and Society, Police Practice and Research, Mobilization, and Contemporary Sociology. Vitale is an essayist, whose writings have appeared in the NY Daily News, NY Times, The Nation, Gotham Gazette, and The New Inquiry.