Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps and Their Johns

Megacities

August 1998 •English

Megacities is a documentary about the slums of five different metropolitan cities.

Taxi Driver

February 1976 •English

A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feed his urge for violent action.

Murdered and Missing in Montana

November 2021 •English

A documentary examining the mysterious deaths of three young Indigenous women in south-central Montana, featuring access to family members, tribal officials, law enforcement, and community activists.

Strange Days

October 1995 •English

Former policeman Lenny Nero has moved into a more lucrative trade: the illegal sale of virtual reality-like recordings that allow users to experience the emotions and past experiences of others. While they typically contain tawdry incidents, Nero is shocked when he receives one showing a murder.

True Romance

September 1993 •English

Clarence marries hooker Alabama, steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.

Shanghai Express

February 1932 •English

A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.

Irreversible

May 2002 •French

A woman’s lover and her ex-boyfriend take justice into their own hands after she becomes the victim of a rapist. Because some acts can’t be undone. Because man is an animal. Because the desire for vengeance is a natural impulse. Because most crimes remain unpunished.

A Wife Alone

June 2012 •English

A former prostitute ensnares a young investment banker into marriage determined to avenge her lesbian lover and rob a group of corrupt business men, her husband included.

Angel

April 1984 •English

Molly Stewart, a teen at the top of her class who survives by working nights as a prostitute on Hollywood Blvd, finds her world beginning to fall apart when a depraved, necrophiliac serial killer begins targeting LA’s streetwalkers.

Lord of War

September 2005 •English

Yuri Orlov is a globetrotting arms dealer and, through some of the deadliest war zones, he struggles to stay one step ahead of a relentless Interpol agent, his business rivals and even some of his customers who include many of the world's most notorious dictators. Finally, he must also face his own conscience.

Shoot 'Em Up

July 2007 •English

A man named Mr. Smith delivers a woman's baby during a shootout, and is then called upon to protect the newborn from the army of gunmen.

Meena

June 2014 •English

Meena is a documentary film about sex trafficking in India based on a true story.

She Walks by Night

October 1959 •German

Based on an actual post-war murder in Frankfurt, this standard docudrama by Rudolf Jugert is a serious treatment of the story as compared to the earlier, satirical film The Girl Rosemarie. The history of the case of Rosemarie, a hooker, and how she came to be strangled in her apartment is not completely clear. One of the suspects in the case was first charged, later acquitted, but never really free of an aura of culpability. British actress Belinda Lee plays the title role with her voice dubbed over in German.

St. Pauli Herbertstraße

December 1965 •German

The Good Thief

April 2003 •English

An aging gambler on a losing streak attempts to rob a casino in Monte Carlo. But someone's already tipped off the cops before he even makes a move.

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

March 1971 •English

After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.

China Girl in Bangkok

January 2003 •Thai

Nop is a small time thief who gets a job from the local Chinese mafia in Bangkok. He and another guy have to pick up some girls from a small fishing port nearby who have been smuggled in from China to work in a Karaoke bar and deliver them to Bangkok. On the way back into town they are stopped at a police check point and the cops soon realize the people in the van are all illegal immigrants. He runs away with a girl who speaks some Thai named Liew who is coming to Thailand to pay back her family's debts. A chase leads to them nearly being captured and Nop is shot but they manage to escape and hide out in Pattaya for a few days. They have a relationship but Nop must hand over the girl to the mob no matter what. She does not want to work in the bar but is forced to. Nop does not agree...

Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers

March 2007 •English

During the last half-century, Cambodia has witnessed genocide, decades of war and the collapse of social order. Now, documentary filmmaker Rithy Panh looks at an irreparable tragedy that is less visible, yet no less pervasive: the spiritual death that results when young women are forced into prostitution. Angry and impassioned, PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS presents the searing stories of poor Asian women whose lives were violated and their destinies destroyed when their bodies were turned into items of sexual commerce.

Faults

March 2014 •English

Claire is under the grip of a mysterious new cult called Faults. Desperate to be reunited with their daughter, Claire's parents recruit one of the world's foremost experts on mind control, Ansel Roth.

Dirty Pretty Things

September 2002 •English

An undocumented immigrant finds a human heart in one of the toilets of the west London hotel where he works with other undocumented immigrants.