Blowin’ Up chronicles harm reduction at the Queens Human Trafficking Intervention Court

“I hate court. I didn’t want to be at court. No one likes court. It’s boring. It’s terrible. It’s chaotic. And having to tell someone they have to do five sessions with me to get an adjournment and contemplation of dismissal, and then have to wait six months for that to happen – like, that’s crazy. But it’s the only possibility, so what are we supposed to do? Just not have the court and just let people get criminal records? And then what?”

Such was the frustrating bureaucracy that Eliza Hook, a former social worker at GEMS (Girls Educational & Mentoring Services), navigated on a daily basis for her sex worker clients at New York City’s Queens Human Intervention Trafficking Court. Headed by a female judge (the Honorable Toko Serita) and the first in the nation to emphasize harm reduction over punishment, it’s a reality Stephanie Wang-Breal captures both artistically and respectfully in Blowin’ Up, her fascinating, fly-on-the-wall portrait of this off-the-radar place where Hook served as a court advocate for close to a decade. So when I got the chance to chat via phone with the fierce film subject a few days before the doc’s theatrical premiere (April 5th in NYC, April 12th in LA), the first thing I wanted to know was whether there was a movement to reform the unjust system itself.

To find out, and read part two of my long and winding interview, visit Global Comment.

Doc Star of the Month: Eliza Hook, 'Blowin' Up'

Stephanie Wang-Breal’s Blowin’ Up — the term that sex workers use for leaving one’s pimp — is a surprising slice of cinema vérité, an artistic and nonjudgmental, years-in-the-making look at New York City’s Queens Human Intervention Trafficking Court. Run by Judge Toko Serita and her all-female team, it’s the first of its kind to emphasize the welfare of sex workers over the criminalization of their trade, addressing the root causes of prostitution while providing alternative solutions (but only if that’s what the arrestee wants).

And one remarkable woman providing that respectful, pressure-free help is Eliza Hook, a social worker at GEMS (Girls Educational & Mentoring Services) and court advocate who fiercely puts her clients above all else — even a film shoot.

Documentary spoke with the tireless advocate a few days before the film’s April 5th premiere in New York (the film opens April 12 in Los Angeles).  This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

To read my interview visit Documentary magazine.

“… When you’re a Niche Filmmaker in a World That’s Not Always as Openminded as You Might Like”: CineKink Artist Spotlight Award Recipient Jennifer Lyon Bell on Her Art Porn Career

This year CineKink NYC will be celebrating its upcoming sweet sixteen edition of the fest (April 3-7) by adding something new: the CineKink Artist Spotlight award. And in town to receive the honor — and premiere her latest Adorn, along with its making-of documentary, as well as host her “From Fantasy to Film: Design Your Own Porn Film” workshop — will be Amsterdam-based Jennifer Lyon Bell, no stranger to the kinky fest. Indeed, Bell has been screening her work at CineKink since 2006, racking up awards while making connections she cites as integral to her longevity in a notoriously difficult industry.

Filmmaker caught up with Bell to find out how exactly a feminist pornographer stays afloat in an age of social media platform crackdowns and trendy “intimacy coordinators.”

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

“Sex-Positive and Non-Exploitative, with a Big Piece of Questioning who is getting Representation”: Lisa Vandever on Celebrating CineKink NYC’s Sweet Sixteen

For the past 16 years CineKink NYC co-founder and director Lisa Vandever has been on a mission to not only showcase the best in sex-positive films — from narrative to nonfiction, features to shorts, high camp to deep drama — but also support their brave indie creators (who are very rarely straight white males). To that end, the upcoming edition (April 3-7) will see its first CineKink Artist Spotlight award bestowed on feminist pornographer Jennifer Lyon Bell, whose erotic work Vandever has been continuously championing since 2006.

Filmmaker was fortunate that Vandever found time for a brief chat in the midst of frenzied last-minute preparations a few days prior to opening night.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.