Documentary
License to Pimp
License to Pimp
What would you do if your workplace became a brothel?
Would you adapt to it? Fight it? Or quit?
License To Pimp is a feature documentary about the dilemmas that 3 strippers face when they must pay for the privilege to work in strip clubs where management violate their labor rights. Filmed in San Francisco, the filmmaker (an ex-stripper) investigates the various factors that enable the strip clubs to pimp their workers and deny them basic rights that workers across America are guaranteed.
The film chronicles the choices of three strippers and the filmmaker and offers a rare & intimate window into an aspect of this industry that few are privy to. Through these women’s stories, we see the current working conditions of exotic dancers not only in San Francisco, but throughout the nation and globally as strip clubs misclassify workers and engage in illegal and unfair labor practices. We follow an under-aged immigrant teenager, a whistle blower, & a woman trying to transition out of the sex industry.
HIV Sisters: Living Quilt
HIV Sisters: Living Quilt
55 minutes; 2009; USA; online new media; non-fiction; video; color; sound
Writer, Producer, Director, & Camera: Hima B.
Featuring: Aleisha, Anna, Emijah, & Violet, Cynt, Haneefa, Janice, Jai, Kryssy,Ms. M., Gina, & Wanda
Editors: Hima B., Tiffany Lawrence, Laneya Wiles, Leigh Johnson, & Manuel Climaco
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HIV Sisters: Living Quilt is an interactive, web-based, public arts project for all women & girls to share their personal story of being infected, impacted, & at risk for HIV/AIDS. Women and girls are encouraged to use video, images, audio, and text to create their personal stories and share them with their social networks. In 2008, ten African American and Latina women initially launched this online living AIDS quilt with their auto-biographical and biographical vignettes that reflect the feminized impact of this virus.
Share your story!
Straight for the Money
Straight for the Money
1994; 59 minutes; documentary; USA; video; color, sound Producer, Director, & Camera: Hima B. with: Rainbeau, China Blue, Eleanor M., Fatima, Alice B. Brave, Kelly, Dee M., & Jessica Editor: Lara Mac ************** Eight lesbian and bisexual women who work as prostitutes, strippers, porn stars, and phone sex workers discuss how they negotiate their jobs, intimacy with lovers, and values. With "sexperts" Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, Scarlot Harlot, and Joan Nestle who provide insight into the historical presence of queer sex workers. ************** EXHIBITION HISTORY: 1995 Whitney Biennial 1994 "From India to America: New Directions in Indian Film & Video", the Whitney Museum 1994 World Premiere: San Francisco Int'l. Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
How Do You Tell Somebody That You’re HIV+?
How Do You Tell Somebody That You're HIV+?
13:28 min; 2011; documentary; USA; video; color, sound;
Writer, Producer, Director, & Camera: Hima B.
Co-Editors: Tiffany Lawrence, Hima B., & Leigh Johnson
Featuring: Haneefa & Sanaya
A short documentary that follows a day in the life of Haneefa, a young African American woman who struggles to disclose that she was HIV positive to her X at the time that they conceived their daughter. Haneefa journeys to pick up refills for her AIDS medication and breaks down the exorbitant costs of her prescriptions while explaining how she is dependent on Medicaid to maintain these costs so she can stay alive.
This film is part of a larger collection of multi-media portraits of women and girls who are infected, impacted, & at risk for HIV/AIDS entitled HIV Sisters: Living Quilt
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EXHIBITION HISTORY
9/11 Canadian Premiere (Quebec): Montreal International Black Film Festival
5/11 Loveland, CO: Life Tree Film Festival
5/11 German Premiere (Berlin): Black International Cinema
4/11 Hot Docs "Doc Shop"
4/11 NYC Premiere: New Filmmakers
4/11 European Premiere (Paris): European Independent Film Festival
3/11 World Premiere (Brattleboro, VT): Women’s Film Festival
Coming Out, Coming Home
Coming Out, Coming Home
45 minutes; 1996; USA; documentary; video; sound; color
video, 1996; sound; color
Director: Hima B.
Producers: San Francisco Asian Pacific Island Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (SF-A/PI PFLAG) and The Living Well Project
One Filipino and three Chinese families and their gay & lesbian children engage in dialogue about shame, grief, love, growth, living with HIV/AIDS, the acceptance of homosexuality by family members, & the cultural perceptions of homosexuality. The Gay Asian Pacific Alliance in San Francisco awarded this documentary with the 1997 George Choy Memorial Award.
Featuring: the Baos, the Lews, the Mobley-Wileys, & the Yees
contact: Asian and Pacific Islander Family Pride
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