Maria Roxo: from sex-work to film- directing

A sex-worker and a first-time director began making a film which would transform their lives. One from a profession that is often viewed with disgust or through the rosy lens of exoticism, and the other a high-status intellectual role in a liberal society. Maria died before the film was completed.

There have been many films featuring sex­ work, either as fiction or documentary, but probably none that were co-directed by the sex-worker. Renata Ferraz directed the documentary film "Rua dos anjos" (English title "Rising sun blues"), and it was important for her not to point the camera at the protagonist as if she were an object to study, literally a sex-object in her case. She felt it had to be a partnership in which the main character was not a marginal person with no value, but someone who had learned different professional skills, and she wanted to share those skills with her own as a film- maker.

This extraordinary film is a real drama in process as it was not scripted, and the two women engaged in a directorial dance of power and self-expression. It won prizes at its premiere in Ann Arbor (MI), and at IndieLisboa it gained the most audience votes in the National Competition.

Renata is Luso-Brazilian and this is her first feature film as director. She was a theatre actress for 20 years, and after leaving Brazil she moved through video arts to cinema. She played the part of a sex-worker in a 2016 film, and was invited to play a similar role in the series on Portuguese TV called Luz Vermelha (Red Light, 2019). Reflecting on "Rua dos anjos" Renata says:"Maria's life reminds me of the fragility of the human being, how life can change from one moment to the next".

The full conversation can be read with links and stills from the film on The Prisma Multicultural Newspaper website, where it was first published, and re-published on 23rd May 2022: https://theprisma.co.uk/2022/05/23/maria-roxo-from-sex-work-to-film-directing/