The Painful Price of Sex

“I remember my youngest client in Dubai was 12 years old and my oldest was 83. Pimps give us lots of pills and drugs to forget, I feel that we are like Coca-Cola machines, waiting for the next client to come, put some money and have some pleasure,” said Vika in the Price of Sex .

Vika is one of many of victims of sex trafficking in the award winning documentary the Price of Sex,  created in collaboration with the Center of Investigative Journalism, that will screen at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival on June 24rth to 26th in New York.

Over a period of seven years Mimi Chakarova, a Bulgarian-born investigative journalist and Emmy winning photographer, traveled to villages in Eastern Europe, as well as Dubai and Turkey to hear the stories of those sold to pimps as girls , creating intimate portraits of the scarred women they had become.

After the fall of Communism, Eastern Europeans hoping for a better future, instead saw their lives become unhinged. The relative job and housing security Communism had offered fell away.  In search for a better life,  many girls were and continue to be lured to Italy, Greece and the Middle East. All too often the waitress job turned out to be that of a hooker.

The story of Eastern European girls forced into prostitution may be known to many.  All too often they are presented as a tragic set of statistics easy to push away, to forget.   However, by combining her extraordinary photography, undercover footage, and her personal journey to uncover the root cause of this tragic industry, Mimi Chakarova’s Price of Sex, lingers and haunts.

The Price of Sex also contains a multimedia component complete with Chakarova’s  photo’s and extra footage.  For more information check out  Price of Sex Multimedia.

Popularity: 2%

One Comment

(errant apostrophe)

please, use a word other than “penetrating” here

Your Name

6/23/2011

Leave a Reply