Scarlet Road

Scarlet Road (2012)

Scarlet Road follows the extraordinary work of Australian sex worker, Rachel Wotton. Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression and the rights of sex workers, she specializes in a long over-looked clientele – people with disability.

Date of release
2012-03-12
TMDB
3.8 / 10 (5)
Runtime
1h 46m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Catherine Scott

Casting

Interesting facts

Scarlet Road is a 2011 documentary that explores the life of Australian Rachel Wotton, a sex worker who is based in New South Wales and sells sex to clients who have disabilities. Directed by Catherine Scott and produced by Pat Fiske for Paradigm Pictures, the film premiered at the Sydney Film Festival on 11 June 2011. Subsequently, there was a public screening and reception at the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly in Canberra. Scarlet Road was a 2011 Walkley Documentary Award finalist.

Background

Wotton is a member of Scarlet Alliance, the "Australian Sex Workers' Association". In late 2000, Wotton collaborated with other sex workers and related organisations, such as People with Disability Australia Inc., to form the "Touching Base Committee". The committee explored the concept of providing commercial sex for people with special needs and the corresponding training that would be required for participating sex workers.

Filmmaker Catherine Scott had known Wotton for 11 years when she proposed the idea for Scarlet Road; however, Wotton was initially reluctant, due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter. They continued to discuss the idea and the documentary was eventually completed over a three-year period. Wotton later commented on the documentary approach saying: "This film was a collaboration thing.

Part of my reason for doing the film was to wipe away the 'us and them' mentality. We're all one car accident away from being in the same position as these guys. Tomorrow we could all wake up out of coma and not be able to eat let alone have sex or touch ourselves. What I say to people is imagine the next time you go to have sex or masturbate having to call your mum and have her organise it all for you ...

Following the release of the film, Wotton stated in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald: "I am a sex worker and I make my money from clients seeing me. Some clients just happen to have a disability."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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