Interviews
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Last Interview // Quais são seus planos para seu futuro?
Gabi: Aline, in this interview, I want to start with what’s most important. The questions that matter. What are your plans for the future? Gabi, my plan for the future is to leave Vila Mimosa. I want to get a regular job. And work honestly, because I can’t take it anymore. I have to deal…
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“I wish for dignity for everyone.”
If a genie granted you three wishes, what would you ask for? It could be for yourself, or for Vila Mimosa. INDIRA: I wish for good health for my whole family. Without good health, what good is money? When I have good health, I don’t need money, because I work hard to make it. So I…
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“This here is my life.”
If a genie granted you three wishes, what would you ask for? It could be for yourself, or for Vila Mimosa. For Vila Mimosa, I would wish for urbanization and clean this whole place up. I wish the women here were treated like women. Because a lot of people say these women have the easy life.…
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“I wish for a much different future for my children”
If a genie granted you three wishes, what would you ask for? First, I would wish for good health for me and my children. Second, a much different future for my children. And third… money.
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#3wishes “I wish they had a decent place to work”
If a genie granted you three wishes, what would you ask for? For my personal life… I want to win the lottery. Second, I wish my sister lived closer. And for the girls, I wish they had a decent place to work. Like that Parque das Meninas* project I heard about. That would be great. …
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#3wishes “I wish for health for my son”
If a genie granted you three wishes, what would you ask for? I would wish for health for my son. I would like a job, so I never needed to come back here. And I’d like to be happy.
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#3wishes “I wish I had a better job”
If a genie granted you three wishes, what would you ask for? I wish I got a better job. And good health. And happiness. That’s it.
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#3wishes “I would get rid of all the violence here.”
If a genie granted you three wishes, what would you ask for? What would I change here in Vila Mimosa? I would change life a bit for the girls who work here. It’s complicated. I’ve seen a lot of girls get beat up here. Sometimes they meet up with a client somewhere else… I’ve seen girls…
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“It would be difficult to leave this behind.”
If a genie granted you three wishes, what would you ask for? What would I wish for? I wish to maintain my good health. And I wish the time…. you know, my time has passed. I’ve been working here for a long time. I was really young when I started working here. I’m 33 now. I…
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#3wishes “I wish I could have children”
If a genie granted you three wishes, what would you ask for? It could be for yourself, or for Vila Mimosa. Three wishes? First, I wish I could be a mother. I have a fertility problem and can’t have children. It’s a problem with my uterus. Second, I wish I could marry my marinheiro. He’s someone I…
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#3wishes “A better life for my kids”
Aline asks Vila Mimosa’s resident aesthetician: What do you wish for your future? I wish for a better life for my kids, to give them a good foundation. I wish I had my own house, with a little room where I could rest. I wish I could give my kids the good education that I…
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#3wishes: “I hope my daughter never finds out”
What would you do if a genie granted you three wishes? You only get three, so make them count. Three wishes? First, I would find a good man who respects me, but doesn’t know about this life. Someone outside this environment, who would never find out I worked here. We would start a family and have…
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#3wishes: Plastic surgery
What would you do if a genie granted you three wishes? If a genie granted me three wishes? Maybe I shouldn’t be asking a genie. I should be asking God, not a genie. But first, I would ask for…. a house. A nice little house for me and my kids to live in. I don’t have…
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#3wishes “I would buy another house”
What would you do if a genie granted you three wishes? Me? I would get out of here immediately. I would buy another house, because I gave my house to my mom. And I would be happy.
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#3wishes “I wish this was a calmer place”
If a genie granted you three wishes, for yourself or for Vila Mimosa, what would you wish for? First, that I am able to finish my house exactly the way I want it. Get a good job. And forget this place and never come back. Aline: You have two more. I wish for the other…
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#3wishes
If a genie granted you three wishes, for yourself or for Vila Mimosa, what would you wish for? First, I wish for a lot of good health for me and my family. Second, that I find a job I like, so I don’t have to keep prostituting myself. I don’t need luxury, just the basics…
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“Make your money and get out of here”
A veteran and a newbie talk about working in Vila Mimosa. The newbie hasn’t told her husband where she’s working. The veteran met her husband here, ten years ago. He can’t complain, she says, “because I don’t cost him any money…. I have to have my own money.” I was talking with a client…
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“We’re people like anyone else”
Aline quer deixar claro para quem ver esse documentário: “A prostituição não é um bicho de sete cabeças… a gente é gente como qualquer um.” Video em português. Aline and Julie grab beers on Rua Ceará next to Vila Mimosa and talk about the documentary in progress. Julie asks Aline, “What do you want to…
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“How many clients have you had?”
Aline adivinha quantos clientes ela já teve em treze anos trabalhando como garota de programa. Video em português. Aline tries to guess how many clients she’s had in thirteen years making a living as a sex worker.
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“Tell me about your boyfriend”
<Mara e Aline conversam sobre o namorado da Mara. Mara pede para ele comprar uma nova portão para a casa que construiu, e diz que um homem tem que ajudar mesmo se ele não tenha muito dinheiro. Video em português.> Mara and Aline, sex workers in Rio’s red light district, talk about Mara’s new house, and…
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“What is your ideal client?”
“Describe your ideal client.” Twelve escorts and one brothel owner agree that the ideal client is one who doesn’t cause any problems. Doze prostitutas e uma dona de casa concordam que o cliente ideal é quem chegar, pagar, e vai embora sem problemas. Video em português. “A client should know how to be pleasant. For me to…
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“What would you change about this place, if you could?”
<Aline pergunta as colegas como mudariam a Vila Mimosa para melhorar e atrair mais clientes. A maioria dizem, “limpeza.” Video em português.> Aline asks her colleagues what they would change about Vila Mimosa to make it a better place to work or attract more clients. The answer is overwhelmingly to improve the sanitary conditions. Several…
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“This is a dying profession”
Carla tem um trailer do lado da Vila Mimosa onde servem garotas de programa, clientes, e residentes do bairro. “Eu amo esse lugar,” diz Carla. Nunca trabalhou como garota de programa, mas se considera uma aliada. Nesse video, Carla explica por qué ela acha que a profissão está acabando. Em português; filmado em 2012. Carla runs…
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“Tell me about love”
Jaqueline trabalha por varias casas na Vila Mimosa como faxinheira. Nesse video, ela fala das amores que ela ja tive na Vila. Video em português. Jaqueline works as a cleaning lady for a number of houses in Vila Mimosa. In this video, she talks about love. Tell me about love in Vila Mimosa. I’ve…
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Exit Plans
Paulinha, prostituta ha dez anos na Vila Mimosa que sustenta dois filhos e um neto com seu dinheiro de ca, diz que tem planos para sair. Video em português. Paula has worked for the past ten years in Vila Mimosa, and supports her two sons and her grandson with the money she makes as a…
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“There is nothing shameful about being a whore”
Fatima, uma dona de casa na Vila Mimosa, diz que”Não é vergonha você ser puta.” Video em português. Fatima, a brothel owner in Vila Mimosa, says, “There is nothing shameful about being a whore”: Shame is living under a bridge with three or four kids. That’s what shame means to me. Now, if you’re coming to Vila…
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“Money rules the world”
Carla e Elaine tem um trailer do lado da Vila Mimosa onde servem garotas de programa, clientes, e residentes do bairro. “Eu amo esse lugar,” diz Carla. Nenhuma trabalha como garota de programa, mas ambas se consideram aliadas das garotas. Nesse video, Carla diz que, bem ou mal, a Vila sustenta muitas famílias. “Dizem que…
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Allies
Carla e Elaine tem um trailer do lado da Vila Mimosa onde servem garotas de programa, clientes, e residentes do bairro. “Eu amo esse lugar,” diz Carla. Nenhuma trabalha como garota de programa, mas ambas se consideram aliadas das garotas. Video em português; filmado em 2012. Carla and Elaine run a food trailer next door…
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“I love this place”
Carla e Elaine tem um trailer do lado da Vila Mimosa onde servem garotas de programa, clientes, e residentes do bairro. Nenhuma trabalha como prostituta mas ambas se consideram aliadas das garotas. Carla explica que chegou na Vila por acaso de Juiz de Fora, jamais voltou, e não trocaria por nada. Video em português; filmado…
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Friends with Benefits
Nara and Esmeralda talk about their relationship. “She’s someone I can trust,” says Nara. “When I got pregnant, she was the first person I told. But if we got married, we would end up breaking up.” “It’s friends with benefits,” Esmeralda says. Next: Watch Nara talk about what it’s like to be in an open…
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“There are days I don’t sleep”
A question about Nara’s work schedule turns into a conversation about drugs: “There are days I don’t sleep.” Next: Watch Nara and Esmeralda talk about what it’s like to be in an open relationship in Vila Mimosa.
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“Vila Mimosa is a necessary evil.”
Essa ė quinta parte de uma entrevista rara com a Graça, presidente da AMOCAVIM e ex-prostituta na Vila Mimosa, sobre orgulho (“eu tenho”) e por que “Vila Mimosa é um mal necessário.” Primeira parte sobre independência; segunda parte sobre regras na Vila; dai ela explica por que “a mulher não tem que sentir vergonha dizer que…
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“I don’t need a man anymore. For anything.”
Essa ė quarta parte de uma entrevista rara com a Graça, presidente da AMOCAVIM e ex-prostituta na Vila Mimosa, sobre seu homem ideal: “Hoje eu nao preciso [de um homem] mais. Para nada. Né? Para nada.” Primeira parte sobre independência; segunda parte sobre regras na Vila.; dai ela explica por que “a mulher não tem que…
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“Figure out how to pay for your autonomy”
Essa ė terceira parte de uma entrevista rara com a Graça, presidente da AMOCAVIM e ex-prostituta na Vila Mimosa. Primeira parte sobre independência; segunda parte sobre regras na Vila. Nessa parte ela explica por que “a mulher não tem que sentir vergonha dizer que ela é uma puta.” Video em português. This is the third part of a rare interview…
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Rules
Essa ė segunda parte de uma entrevista rara com a Graça, presidente da AMOCAVIM e ex-prostituta na Vila Mimosa. Primeira parte aqui. Video em português. This is the second part of a rare interview with Graça, the president of AMOCAVIM, the association of brothel owners of Vila Mimosa, and a former sex worker in Vila…
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“Here you can earn your independence.”
“What do you think of prostitution?” “I think it’s a very good thing in life. For people who don’t have a job, who need to support their children.” Graça, the president of the association of brothel owners of Vila Mimosa (and former sex worker) talks about why women come to Vila Mimosa (“out of necessity”)…
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Rape: “Ou vai ou morre”
Aline e Indira conversam sobre um estupro em grupo com os traficantes do morro que moravam quando tinham começado de trabalhar na Vila Mimosa. “Ou dava ou morria,” diz Aline. (Video em português; legenda embaixo em inglês.) Over two interviews, Aline and Indira talk about when they were gang raped by drug traffickers on the…
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Indianara: “People say that prostitutes have an expiration date.”
Indianara is a veteran sex worker rights activist in Rio de Janeiro. She spoke at the Observatory of Prostitution‘s extension course, A Particular Revolution: The Brazilian Prostitutes Movement, at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro on November 24, 2015. (Quem fala português pode assistir o video aqui ou embaixo.) People say…
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Indianara: “It’s more dangerous, in Brazil, to be a wife than a whore.”
Indianara is a veteran sex worker rights activist in Rio de Janeiro. She spoke at the Observatory of Prostitution‘s extension course, A Particular Revolution: The Brazilian Prostitutes Movement, at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro on November 24, 2015. Quem fala português pode assistir o video aqui ou embaixo.…
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Amara: “What is family, inside the travesti universe? What is family for us?”
Amara and Indianara spoke at the Observatory of Prostitution‘s extension course, A Particular Revolution: The Brazilian Prostitutes Movement, at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro on November 24, 2015. (Quem fala português pode assistir o video embaixo.) AMARA: Indianara, I was thinking about how for a travesti in prostitution, the word…
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Amara Moira is a post-doc trans whore who wants you to hear this
“My name is Amara Moira, I’m 30 years old, I’m a doctoral candidate at Unicamp. I prostitute myself in Jardim Itatinga. And I recently started a blog.” Amara spoke at the Observatory of Prostitution’s extension course, A Particular Revolution: The Brazilian Prostitutes Movment, at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro on November 24, 2015.…
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Do you consider yourself an independent woman?
I am. In everything. I don’t depend on anyone for anything. I depend on me and my body. That’s it.
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What do you think of prostitution?
I don’t think it’s an easy life, like people say. It’s not easy to go to bed with all kinds of people you don’t know. It’s not easy. So for me, if you don’t have your head on right… Save your money… Make something for yourself… This place will be the end of you. You’ll…
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How many children do you support?
Aline and Julie ask sex workers, brothel managers and cleaning ladies how many children they support with the money they make working in Rio’s red light district. Every woman we asked that had children was the primary provider (and often sole) provider for her children. The last woman to speak is Graça, the woman who…
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“My life got a little better after I came to the Zona”
Daisy talks about the hardship she endured before she came to Vila Mimosa and started working as a prostitute. “My life got a little better after I came to the Zona”.
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“I think it’s slavery to depend on someone like that”
Aline asks Bruna if she would be in a relationship with a man just for his money. “I think it’s slavery to depend on someone like that,” Bruna says. Bruna is 24, has one child, and has been working in Vila Mimosa for the last three years. She is in a relationship with another woman…
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Trafficked at 15
Sara talks about how her adopted mom forced her into prostitution at 15 in Vila Mimosa, Rio de Janeiro’s red light district. “She made me and her daughter work and send her the money we made.” Anyone who does commercial sex work as a minor (whether they’re forced, like Sara, or seek it out, like…
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Child Abuse
Ruby tells Aline she left home as a child to get away from her mother’s abusive boyfriend and started doing sex work. “Seeing as how I’d already lost my virginity…” Ruby is one of four women we interviewed who at some point in their past were victims of sexual exploitation or sex trafficking. (In Ruby’s case, she started…
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Aging Out
Aline and Indira talk about what it’s like to be aging out of sex work, and the relationships they’ve formed with long-term clients. “I have clients where I took their virginity and I’m still seeing them,” Indira says.
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“You like women, right?”
“You like women, right?” Karina, a former sex worker in Rio de Janeiro’s red light district, talks about what it was like as a lesbian to work with male clients. “It was horrible,” she says. “But the money…”
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Lovers
Nara and Esmeralda talk about what it’s like to be in an open relationship in Vila Mimosa, Rio de Janeiro’s red light district. Nara recently had her second child; Esmeralda is married with children. They met working at a brothel in downtown Rio, and recently started working in Vila Mimosa together. “For the flexibility,” Esmeralda…
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“I’m the man for everything”
Women in Rio de Janeiro’s low-income red light district talk about how many children they support with their earnings as sex workers, brothel managers and cleaning ladies. “I support a household, two kids and my woman,” Nara says. “And my woman has six kids. Understand? I’m the man for everything.”‘ The last woman to speak…
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Naomi
Naomi talks about why she quit working as a manicurist to work as an escort in Vila Mimosa (“The money and the freedom”), what it’s like to work there (“It’s not a seven-headed beast like everyone says”), and who knows what she does for a living (“Everybody”). “You know when you go out with someone…
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Condoms
One of the questions Aline turned to most often in our interviews with her colleagues and friends in Vila Mimosa was, “What do you think about clients who try to have sex without a condom?” As the conversation indicates, for many women, it isn’t a question of whether they know the risks associated with having…
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32 Days of Sex – World Cup through the eyes of a prostitute in Rio (WEEK ONE)
Rio de Janeiro welcomed over 886,000 tourists to town for the 32 days of World Cup this summer. Half a mile from Maracanã Stadium, Vila Mimosa — Rio’s red light district and the largest of almost 300 sex venues in Rio — geared up with brothel remodels and high expectations. What would happen when World…
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Too dangerous to protect
It’s been almost five months since sex worker Joyce was assaulted, robbed, raped, and – after she testified – kidnapped by police officers in Rio de Janeiro. When I spoke with her in hiding during World Cup about whether she regretted speaking out about the violence, she told me, “It’s too late now. I’m already…
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Ruby: “World Cup was not good for us.”
Ruby and Aline, colleagues for almost a decade in Vila Mimosa, talk about what it was like to work over World Cup. I’m not going to lie. World Cup was not good for us. It wasn’t. Look, there weren’t a lot of gringos in Vila Mimosa during the day, and the gringos who showed up…
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I want to know about your safety.
Three weeks into World Cup, on the day of the Argentina vs Belgium quarterfinal, I met Ani, Aline’s colleague in Vila Mimosa for the last ten years. Ani works the night shift from 6pm to 6am, and often leaves as Aline is showing up to work the early morning. After Aline told me Ani was…
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Brazil’s Most Wanted Prostitute
Isabel was one of four hundred prostitutes working in Niteroi’s Caixa Economica building across the bay from Rio de Janeiro until May 23, when a massive operation involving hundreds of police from thirteen precincts across the state shut down the street, broke in without warrants, beat women, raped some of them, and illegally arrested and…
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Rest in peace Natalha
I have never met a woman who has been through such hell and emerged with such resilience. Natalha worked for thirteen years in Vila and knew Aline from a theater project they did a few years ago. Aline filmed this interview with her in front of Vila in 2012, when she was 39. She died…
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Eviction Rumors
“Have you heard the rumors we have to move?” Aline asks her colleagues the question that scares her the most – Have they heard the rumors the red light district has to move for World Cup? She says, “I’m afraid to even ask about it.” The prospect of moving a hundred brothels to a new…
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Trafficked in Portugal
Patricia, a sex worker in Rio’s red light district, has traveled abroad multiple times over the last 16 years to work in in Spain’s sex industry. On her last trip she went to work in Portugal, and as she described it, “This trip was fucked.” She didn’t keep any of the money she made, and…
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My First Time
22 women in Rio’s working class red light district talk about the first time they did sex work, what it was like, and why they’re still doing it. Karina lost her job. Veronica’s job didn’t pay enough to cover rent. Monique needed the bus fare home. Andrea, Diana and Patricia came with a friend. Julia, perplexingly, started…
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Milena
Milena is one of the first women I met in Vila Mimosa in January of 2012. She was working as a manager at the house Aline works as a prostitute. In this interview, she talks about what her job is like. It varies from house to house, but most brothel managers in Vila Mimosa work 24-hour…
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Breadwinners
22 women in Rio’s red light district talk about why they work in the sex industry. All of them support their families with their income.
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Gabriela
Gabriela talks with Julie and Aline about social misery, her exit plans and the internal conflict of managing two identities. Filmed at Aline’s house.