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Red Lights

Sex doesn’t always come naturally...

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Red Lights

Red Lights

Red Lights

Red Lights

Red Lights

Sex doesn’t always come naturally...

Sex doesn’t always come naturally...

Sex doesn’t always come naturally...

Sex doesn’t always come naturally...

Dijana Olcay-Hot
Dijana Olcay-Hot
Dijana Olcay-Hot
Dijana Olcay-Hot
1 Campaign |
Amsterdam, Netherlands
$3,360 USD 34 backers
33% of $10,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

Red Lights Story

Johan, a young 19-year-old Dutch boy from a provincial village, goes to Amsterdam with some of his mates to booze, smoke grass and party in the city of “sin.” That evening, as he and his friends stroll through the Red Light district and gawk at the prostitutes, his friends goad him into having sex with one. Unable to back out, he goes into the window of Qi Ruan, a girl from China. Once inside, he is unable to complete the act. Instead the two young people talk about their backgrounds and find out that their lives are not so dissimilar.


Our Stories

By Doris, the Film Director

RED LIGHTS will be a short film of approximately 10 minutes, taking place in the Red Light district of Amsterdam, where prostitution has been legal, regulated and taxed by authorities for many years. There are many stereotypes of the typical Dutch sex worker as population demographics and ensuing stereotypes have changed throughout the years. In the 60’s and 70’s most sex workers were lower middle class Dutch and Belgian women. Now most of the sex work has been outsourced to foreign women from Latin America, Eastern Europe and other countries like many other “undesirable” jobs. The politics of Netherlands is becoming increasingly conservative and anti-immigration in the past 10 years after decades of liberalism that legalized soft drugs and prostitution. Laws are now being enacted to close down parts of the Red Light district and to make soft drugs illegal again. RED LIGHTS is partly a reaction to humanize foreigners and show a more positive view of legal sex work.

 

There are also many stereotypes of the typical clients of sex workers. Gawking tourists, drunken young men in Amsterdam for stag parties and lonely local married men looking for an escape from their mundane lives. Our imaginations fill in the rest of the story of comely women paid to fulfill any sexual request and fantasy.

 

But is it really like that? Is it that easy to purchase sex from a stranger and then go through with the most intimate of acts?  And what if that stranger is from another country?  Through an actual experience viewing the transaction between a sex worker and a client, I’ve come to the conclusion that sex work is not just about the need for physical intimacy but about the need for human closeness and understanding.

By Dijana, the Producer

For me as a producer, Red Lights is a very relevant story in times of migration, multiculturalism and an ever faster moving society. Times when we forget that a moment of understanding is sometimes all we need.


Doris and I met in Amsterdam during the Binger Film Lab (www.binger.nl), a great residence for filmmakers.

We were both not native Dutch speakers and had lived at different times in Asia for different reasons where we both had found Dutch partners and moved to The Netherlands. For a few years we’ve talked about working on a project together as we had the same interests in human behaviour and motivations from the unconscious. We also love to celebrate love and life. Red Lights is a story that came out of our many conversations. With this film we wish to tell this typically "male fantasy" story through a feminine "eye."


A very crucial element of our project is that we want to INVOLVE some of the sex workers in the Amsterdam red light district in making the film. For this we work closely with non-profit organization Voices of Woman in Media (http://voicesofwomenmedia.org/). VOW Media aims to provide a way for marginalized communities of women to EDUCATE and EXPRESS themselves through different forms of media. The sex workers will work on the set and document the making of the Red Lights through “a making of” video and photography as well as consulting on the script and film.


In this way, our film will not only contribute to 'humanizing' the woman and girls behind the windows, but will actually involve them directly into telling their own stories en hopefully EMPOWER and ENCOURAGE them to tell their stories.


We believe this film is relevant and we feel confident in sending it out to many festivals as far and wide as possible. 


We will also screen Red Lights from a former prostitution window in the red light district itself, so that everybody can watch our movie straight where the action happens!



What We Need & What You Get

The money that we raise with your help will be used to pay for equipment rental, location fees, insurance, and of course feeding a crew that is working for FREE! The funds will also be used to finish the post production work (editing, color grading, sound designing and all that comes with it). Then comes the marketing: posters, DVDs, T-shirts, presents.

For those who decide to donate to our project, we have assembled a few very cool rewards


Other Ways You Can Help

If you're interested in our film and you know people who might be interested as well, send them the link!  Let them know about this little, delicate movie. Share this on Facebook, twitter, with friends, family, co-workers, EVERYONE! We will always be thankful for your cooperation. Make your Karma points with or without money !!


The Filmmaker

Doris Yeung directed her debut feature film 'Motherland' in 2009, a partial biographical story about an estranged lesbian woman who travels back to San Fransisco to unravel the mystery of her mother's death. She becomes increasingly drawn into a web of deception and incompetence while at the same time dealing with her own grief. 


"Doris Yeung’s debut feature -- part murder mystery, part family drama and part meditation on the ambiguity of the American dream  contains enough interesting  elements to mark her as a filmmaker to watch."

- The Hollywood Reporter

              "The Asian-American experience has rarely been better captured than in this taut, sensitively drawn murder mystery."

- Film Journal International

            "A meditation on family and disillusionment" that is "sensitively conceived and written."

- New York Magazine

"Beautiful, Brooding, and Bold."

- About.com's Lesbian Life Guide

"One of the 10 best Asian American films!"

- Asia Pacific Arts magazine


http://www.motherlandmovie.com




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Choose your Perk

Karma Blessing

$10 USD
Good Karma for helping us make this film! Ofcourse a big thank you from the whole team!
1 claimed

Good karma

$25 USD
You'll have an online preview of the movie, regular updates and a shoutout on Facebook and Twitter. You will also get a personal thank you letter from the director and producer!
7 claimed

Spreading Karma

$50 USD
You will get an exclusive online preview of the movie and a 'thank you' in the film end credits. We'll also send you a personal thank you letter and a digital download of some catchy behind-the-scenes stills! If you tell it to 10 more friends, you’ll get 10 more Karma Points!
11 claimed

Karma +

$100 USD
A massive thank you from the 'Red Lights' production team! You will get all of the above PLUS a DVD of the completed film!
8 out of 40 of claimed

Instant Karma

$250 USD
The team loves you! Your name will be mentioned in the end credits ofcourse, you will get all of the above PLUS a signed limited edition Red Lights poster.
5 out of 30 of claimed

Extra Karma

$500 USD
Now its getting nicely juicy! You will get all of the above + a one of a kind T-shirt with Red Lights Logo + Special Red Lights Chocolates! Yummy!
1 out of 20 of claimed

Juicy Karma

$1,000 USD
A massive thank you from the team first of all. You get a Special mention in the end credits plus a very special gift from the Amsterdam Red Light district. Plus the Red Lights T-Shirt and the DVD!
0 out of 10 of claimed

Strong Karma

$2,000 USD
For this perk you will be Associate producer of Red Lights! On top of that you will receive a Special gift basket of handpicked sex toys from the Amsterdam red light district. And ofcourse you will get the DVD of the movie and the movie poster (signed!)
0 out of 4 of claimed

Karma Sutra

$3,000 USD
You are an angel, we'll forever be thankful. You will receive a beginning title credit (“this film wouldn’t be made without) as well as an associate producers credit! You get all the goodies above mentioned. And also...if you are NOT from Amsterdam, we are inviting you for guaranteed fun-filled weekend in Amsterdam (hotel included, travel excluded). Or if you are from Amsterdam & around we are inviting you for dinner & drinks with the crew.
0 out of 2 of claimed
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