Utter Trash--Breaking the Silence

The Art of Sex

An interview with Vanessa Forro, Organizer of the ‘Breaking the Silence’ Erotic Film & Art Festival

By Bob Ignizio

Breaking the Silence Erotic Film & Art organizer Vanessa Forro

On April 1^st and 2^nd of 2005, Asterisk Gallery in Tremont will be home for the Breaking the Silence Erotic Film & Art Festival. According to event organizer Vanessa Forro, “it’s the first ever erotic film and art event in Cleveland showcasing art work by, for and/or about sex workers and the commercial adult sex industry.” Aside from just providing a forum to see these works, the festival also hopes to help fund a larger event, the Fille de Joie Erotica Film and Art Festival, which will take place in L.A./Hollywood in October 2005. Vanessa says both events, “aim to show audiences the celebratory and sex-positive side of the sex industry as well as the darker side of the sex industry. The latter, the positive, empowering aspect of the industry, lacks a great deal of attention, if any at all, mostly due to societal perceptions and perspectives of prostitution and a puritanical view of sex and sexual relations.” I wanted to know more, and Vanessa was more than happy to oblige.

UT: How did you personally get involved in this?
VF: I financed the first 2 years of my college career working for a local "mom and pop" escort agency. So I have personal experience working in the industry. I also hated the fact that everything you see or read about sex workers and prostitution is most often the drug-addicted street prostitutes, and those stereotypes are often generalized to ALL prostitutes. When I was working I did not feel that degraded in any form; I chose to become an escort, and I didn't do anything that I didn't want to do. Most people did not know I "worked" because no one needed to know. However, this is not to say that ALL prostitutes are the epitomy of the "happy hooker" image- indeed, many are forced into the industry, either to support a drug habit, have low/no self-esteem, were abused as children, and a whole miriad of reasons. I did not get into the industry for any of those reasons, and I figure why should my experience be eliminated from the prostitution experience, or anyone's experience(s) be non-valid when making assumptions and opinions about the individuals who work in the industry. I quit because I wanted to quit, and because the couple I was working for moved out of state and I didn't want to pursue an escort-entrepreneurship on my own.

UT: The line between "erotic" and "pornographic" seems largely to depend on personal tastes. How do you decide when choosing films and artwork what has merit, and what is simply "pornographic"?
VF: Personally, I see nothing wrong with porn. Actually, I own a lot of it, mostly underground stuff friends have made. When it came to deciding what I wanted in the show, I veered towards work that didn't have the Hollywood-manufactured, smut, "suck-fuck-cum-in-the-face" stuff. Let's face it; anyone can go over to Brookpark Road and get porn, or sit at home and browse the Internet! However, that's not to say that there isn't any kind or elements of porn in some of the shorts/films. The kind of porn you'll see at my show is female-positive/centered/sensitive porn- more sensual, touching, sounds- sometimes gritty, and erotic. It differs from the same old porn you'd see in video stores or on the Internet.

Eroticism differs from porn because it has an emotional/mental core to it, which combines with the physical qualities of seeing a person/persons sexually stimulating themselves/each other. Also, eroticism uses the senses- touch, smell, taste, sound, noise- as a major piece of stimulation, alone or together can create an erotic scenario. On the other hand, in order for something to be even remotely considered porn it has to have some sort of intercourse going on.

UT: Who are some of the artists and filmmakers whose work will be on display at the festival? Any works that really grabbed you?
VF: At first I wanted this to be primarily local artists. But word spread and soon local artists were suggesting work from friends in other cities, and many big name sex worker rights advocates, and artists discovered the event. Now I have more than thirty local, national and international artists from Cleveland to San Francisco to Taiwan. It's amazing the talent and material that is out there. Some of the local artists include Jeffrey Klaum, Michael Timothy Sawyer, Staci McNasty, Brian Bencheck, Damon Drummond, Zachary Baker, and Dana Depew. Other artists, both national and international include Dr. Annie Sprinkle (infamous sexologist), Carol Leigh AKA Scarlot Harlot, Becky Goldberg, Juliana Piccillo, Gina Gold, LucyLucy, Shohini Ghosh, and many more. I do not have a personal favorite, but if I were to pick something that caught my attention it would be some of the films (Swallow, Anus Sampler, Hot & Bothered, Our Bodies, Our Minds)- I guess you'll have to see them for yourself!

UT: Despite the fact that none of us would be here without sex, it always seems to be a controversial subject. The right has sort of a puritanical attitude towards sexual works, while on the left you have a certain strain of feminist ideology that sees sexual works as another way women are abused and/or debased. Do you get much flak from either side, and was it difficult finding a space that would let you put this event on?
VF: Well, first of all, sex is always going to be a debated topic, with both liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, etc. Whether people are having too much, too many partners, not the "appropriate" partner, or the appropriate place. One of the core elements of the feminist revolution was sexual liberation. Anais Nin, way before the feminist movement, wrote explicitly about her extramarital affairs and her sexual desires. Initially, feminists taught and believed in women being sexually fulfilled in any relationship- the discovery and research done on the G-Spot, educational and informational workshops on how to reach orgasm, etc.

I think that the climate of sex and sexuality is always changing, whether it's due to political, economic, or social factors. No, I did not have a difficult time in finding a venue for the event. Dana Depew, owner of Asterisk Gallery, was very cool and loved the idea. He has been quite helpful in this venture. The barriers I have faced in developing this event was getting support from businesses and organizations, specifically women's organizations. A lot of the women I have spoken to believe that ALL prostitution is degrading and that it should be eliminated. But is that really possible? Prostitution is noted as the "world's oldest profession," it's going to happen whether people like it or not. There are a variety of different kinds of feminism (radical, postmodern, liberal), so this does not mean that all feminists are against sex work. In actuality, feminism is defined as anyone who believes in equality for everyone regardless of race, class, gender, sexual preference, and believes in the democratic process. When these so-called anti-prostitution feminists put labels on sex workers as "fallen women" or degraded, they're not embracing the true meaning of feminism. As long as they push sex workers further into the margins of the feminist belief system/philosophy, the more farther they get from the true meaning of feminism.

If you come to the festival you will be able to see all the differing attitudes, perspectives, and opinions about prostitution and the sex industry from those who either currently work or have worked in the industry. I think that in order to form an opinion on sex workers and the sex industry, you need to hear all sides and all experiences. Take marriage as an analogy. It's a socially accepted institution in our society. But marriage only lasts 50% of the time. You can get married and have a happy, long, and loving marriage or you can have an abusive, hateful, physically/emotionally/mentally damaging marriage. But society doesn't prohibit or make marriage illegal, rather it celebrates it and, now, there might be a financial stipend for married couples!

UT: What sexually related works, both in film and the arts, do you think have had the most impact on culture and why?
VF: Anais Nin, Jocelyn Elders, Dr. Annie Sprinkle, Carol Queen, Milan Kundera, Daisy Anarchy, Carol Leigh, Margo St. James, Pat Califia, and hundreds of others. I'm not an expert in art nor literature, so I cannot name a whole lot of well-known individuals who've made an impact on our culture, and our sexual culture at that. Those are the ones that have influenced me thus far, and I'm sure there will be many, many more. One of the characters in Kundera's ‘Slowness’ explicitly describes his lover's asshole. He provides an erotic, almost beautiful, description of this part of the human anatomy. And Anais Nin, wrote about her sexual escapades and extra-marital affairs openly in her diaries, as well as her fantasies. She was probably one of the first female authors to educate and instruct women on how to reach orgasm by masturbating and with their partner.

UT: If different from your answers above, which works do you personally like the most?
VF: I love Anais Nin, if you haven't already noticed. I love her writings and her explicitness (not pornographic), which were quite revolutionary at the time. I really love the films that will be at the festival because they're entertaining, educational, informational, political, empowering, pornographic and erotic- a great blend that focuses once again on all aspects of the industry.

UT: Do you plan to put on other events like this in the Cleveland area in the future?
VF: I'll be leaving in June or July for graduate school, so I hope that this event will spur a dialogue and hopefully a large enough consortium of individuals who carry this event and the cause into the future. I do plan on returning to Cleveland, and I hope that the interest will still be here.