DOWNTOWN GIRLS: THE HOOKERS OF HONOLULU
Shot in verité style, with a poetic, street-smart narration by Brent Owens, Downtown Girls: The Hookers of Honolulu documents the experiences and insights of four male-born prostitutes working the downtown strip in Honolulu, Hawaii. The film combines candid interviews with each of the girls with hidden-camera footage of solicitations and encounters with johns in intimate, often graphic detail. Each of the hookers freely discusses her history, technique, and hope for the future; the faces of their tricks are deliberately obscured to protect the guilty.
The four Hookers of Honolulu profiled are:
"Barbie-Q" - Blonde, shapely and "aglow in the night," this fetching beauty started out tricking after high school, lured by the fast cash available to hookers here. Today, having undergone a sex-change operation in Canada that cost her nearly $10,000 (she says she could achieve orgasm six months after surgery), Barbie-Q is one of downtown's most attractive hookers, male or female, and estimates that 90% of her clients are married men. So convincing was her transformation from male to female that she even worked as an exotic dancer at a straight strip club - despite some catty co-workers attempt to undermine her business by telling customers she'd been a "he."
"Juici" - Described by Owens as a hooker "with plenty of satisfied customers," Juici had a "tough" childhood - her homeless family lived on a beach in a tent for a year. As a boy, Juici was also tormented by sexuality issues, and lied to her parents about being a transvestite. "I gave my parents a son for 18 years," she says. But I have to live my life as my life." Nowadays, Juici is a favorite among tourists and military men, many of whom pay only to watch Juici masturbate. Juici admits it's sometimes hard to make it in coventional society, but like others we meet, she hopes for a normal, domestic family life someday: "I want what everybody else wants."
"Saellah V" - A "performer extraordinaire" Saellah V (pronounced "C'est La Vie") was in third grade when she started trying on her mother's panty hose. Reluctant to go public with her cross-dressing urges in high school, "he" found "she" - the alter ego Saellah V - upon moving back to Oahu, and started performing in cross-dressing pageants. Unlike the other hookers we meet, Saellah V has no desire to have a sex-change operation: "I don't want to lose my cock - I love it." Saellah V doesn't consider herself gay, and says most clients are straight men and bisexuals. Saellah V once turned down a father and son duo for sex, saying it was too "freaky."
"Delicious" - A "kickboxing, veteran streetwalker turned college student," Delicious had an undeniable "hormonal" connection to females since high school, and wants nothing more than to raise enough money to complete the transformation into a woman. In the meantime, Delicious is well-practiced in the art of "tuck" - making the male genitals disappear. Seen rejecting several advances by men (one had too little money, another was too drunk), Delicious recalls one incident where a john attempted to have sex at knifepoint, but was thwarted by Delicious's formidable pugilist skills. Delicious' goal is to be independent, buy a home, and have a sex-change operation. Above all, Delicious wants to enjoy a straight lifestyle, "to be loved as a woman."
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Brent Owens first became acquainted with "The Life" of prostitution while he was a college student driving a NYC cab part-time. Owens' fascination with hookers, pimps and johns - and his uncanny ability to earn their trust - have led to six highly-rated America Undercover documentaries: Hookers at the Point (September 1996), Hookers at the Point: Going Out Again (July 1997), Pimps Up, Ho's Down (June 1998), Hookers & Johns: Trick or Treat (May 2000), Hookers at the Point: 5 Years Later (April 2002) and Atlantic City Hookers: It Ain't E-Z Being a Ho' (September 2004).
CREDITS: Directed and Produced by Brent Owens; For HBO: Supervising Producer: Nancy Abraham; Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins.
***
The four Hookers of Honolulu profiled are:
"Barbie-Q" - Blonde, shapely and "aglow in the night," this fetching beauty started out tricking after high school, lured by the fast cash available to hookers here. Today, having undergone a sex-change operation in Canada that cost her nearly $10,000 (she says she could achieve orgasm six months after surgery), Barbie-Q is one of downtown's most attractive hookers, male or female, and estimates that 90% of her clients are married men. So convincing was her transformation from male to female that she even worked as an exotic dancer at a straight strip club - despite some catty co-workers attempt to undermine her business by telling customers she'd been a "he."
"Juici" - Described by Owens as a hooker "with plenty of satisfied customers," Juici had a "tough" childhood - her homeless family lived on a beach in a tent for a year. As a boy, Juici was also tormented by sexuality issues, and lied to her parents about being a transvestite. "I gave my parents a son for 18 years," she says. But I have to live my life as my life." Nowadays, Juici is a favorite among tourists and military men, many of whom pay only to watch Juici masturbate. Juici admits it's sometimes hard to make it in coventional society, but like others we meet, she hopes for a normal, domestic family life someday: "I want what everybody else wants."
"Saellah V" - A "performer extraordinaire" Saellah V (pronounced "C'est La Vie") was in third grade when she started trying on her mother's panty hose. Reluctant to go public with her cross-dressing urges in high school, "he" found "she" - the alter ego Saellah V - upon moving back to Oahu, and started performing in cross-dressing pageants. Unlike the other hookers we meet, Saellah V has no desire to have a sex-change operation: "I don't want to lose my cock - I love it." Saellah V doesn't consider herself gay, and says most clients are straight men and bisexuals. Saellah V once turned down a father and son duo for sex, saying it was too "freaky."
"Delicious" - A "kickboxing, veteran streetwalker turned college student," Delicious had an undeniable "hormonal" connection to females since high school, and wants nothing more than to raise enough money to complete the transformation into a woman. In the meantime, Delicious is well-practiced in the art of "tuck" - making the male genitals disappear. Seen rejecting several advances by men (one had too little money, another was too drunk), Delicious recalls one incident where a john attempted to have sex at knifepoint, but was thwarted by Delicious's formidable pugilist skills. Delicious' goal is to be independent, buy a home, and have a sex-change operation. Above all, Delicious wants to enjoy a straight lifestyle, "to be loved as a woman."
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Brent Owens first became acquainted with "The Life" of prostitution while he was a college student driving a NYC cab part-time. Owens' fascination with hookers, pimps and johns - and his uncanny ability to earn their trust - have led to six highly-rated America Undercover documentaries: Hookers at the Point (September 1996), Hookers at the Point: Going Out Again (July 1997), Pimps Up, Ho's Down (June 1998), Hookers & Johns: Trick or Treat (May 2000), Hookers at the Point: 5 Years Later (April 2002) and Atlantic City Hookers: It Ain't E-Z Being a Ho' (September 2004).
CREDITS: Directed and Produced by Brent Owens; For HBO: Supervising Producer: Nancy Abraham; Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins.
***
posted by Ronnie Rocket @ 12:51 PM
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