Mother's Mink by Carol Leigh AKA Scarlot Harlot

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. Is this movie about the Harlot's favorite subject, sex work? Judge for yourself! Featured at American Film Institute's National Video Festival, the Jewish Video Festival (winning Honorable Mention), Video In's Jewish Film Fest in Vancouver, the Mill Valley Film Festival and Syracuse University's Matrilineage Festival. Director's Citation award at Black Maria Film Festival, and Second place for non-fiction at the American Film Institute's SONY Visions of U.S. Video Contest. (15 minutes)

Scarlot Harlot

Photo: Mariko Passion Carol Leigh (AKA Scarlot Harlot), sex worker-activist and artist, coined the term "sex work" in the late 70s. She founded the San Francisco Sex Workers Film and Arts Festival in 1999 (http://www.sexworkerfest.com). She administers the BAYSWAN (http://bayswan.org) website which features the most extensive information about sex worker rights and issues on the web. Leigh represented the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women on the Board of Supervisors' Task Force on Prostitution. Documenting the Bay Area's multicultural and sexually diverse political and artistic communities, Scarlot Harlot explores the Bay Area's historic cultural and artistic underground from an irreverent and intimate point of view. In a time when mainstream media has become a mouthpiece for corporate interests in America, Scarlot Harlot provides a fresh, irreverent perspective. Challenging conventions of sexuality, aesthetics, technology and the prevailing social system, Leigh has been a pioneer in the development of television as a tool for activism and social change. Three time American Film Institute award winner, Leigh is a recipient of grants from the Film Arts Foundation, San Francisco, the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fund (Chicago) and Art Matters (New York) in addition to numerous screenings and awards in the U.S. and around the world.