Former professor uses film to portray porn stars as people

Photo courtesy of the Sex Worker's Festival Web site

Porn workers are people too, says former UA professor Juliana Piccillo, whose movie "I Was a Teenage Prostitute" plays at the Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St. Friday night.

Juliana Piccillo has been a UA professor, a journalist and a prostitute.

Now, with help from all her jobs, she is a filmmaker and a mother of two.

Piccillo is the director for the Sex Worker's film festival, which runs this weekend at the Screening Room, 127 E Congress St.

"I thought that it would be a wonderful way to bring together sex workers, ordinary folks and scholars in our community to talk about some really challenging issues around feminism, empowerment and women's sexuality." Piccillo said.

As for the university crowd, Piccillo said she thinks they will be drawn by the issues of feminism addressed by the films in the festival.

"I also think it might be a healthy eye-opener for students who haven't thought much about dancers and porn stars as real people," Piccillo said.

The festival aims to give non-sex workers the opportunity to look at the industry from the inside.

"They're really turning the tables on Hollywood and telling their own stories," said publicist Nina Welch.

"It's interesting for people who wonder about the industry but aren't offered a look at it from a sex worker's point of view."

When she was in high school more than 20 years ago, Piccillo worked in a massage parlor to save money for college.

"I had spent a long time wrestling privately with my conflicting emotions about my past," Piccillo said.

"They included gratitude to the massage parlor for enabling me to make money and move in a positive direction in my life, but also shame because working in prostitution is so stigmatized in this culture."

About a year ago, when Piccillo began to work to bring the festival - which originated in Portland, Ore. - to Tucson, she had to come to terms with stereotypes she had about women who have never worked in the sex industry.

"Working on the festival, I met some really fabulous local women," Piccillo said.

"This group of archaeologists and scientists that make up the core of festival volunteers - these women who range in age from their 20s to 40s -are serious scientists with advanced degrees and here they are running around to the adult shops in town to get donations."

Piccillo said working so closely with women so far removed from the industry made her aware of her own stigmas.

"I realize that I had my own stereotypes about non-sex working women - that they would be judgmental or not supportive, but it was just the opposite," Piccillo said.

She put this project together as well as a film of her own, "I Was a Teenage Prostitute," as a way of reconciling the dichotomy of how she felt about having worked in the sex industry.

"It was a way to throw off the shame and bring to light of day the truth about sex work," Piccillo said. "It is not necessarily degrading, shameful and destructive, and women have been doing it forever.

"We ought to stop denying it and look at the context of other gender issues. It's part of being a woman on this planet."

Putting the festival together, Piccillo unearthed women who were doing the same thing that she was doing, something she had thought was unique to her own experience.

"I think I saw myself as doing something very risky when I set out to make my film," Piccillo said.

"And then I began to discovering all of these women who were telling their story boldly and brilliantly and without reservation. I was blown away by their courage and intelligence."

Piccillo's movie runs tomorrow at 8 p.m. during the festival. Call the Screening Room at 622-2262 for scheduling information.