2023, Nicola Mai, Roses d'Acier, Xiaowa Niu
Auditorium 150 - Centre des Colloques
Wednesday, July 2nd - 18:45
Better Sweet is part of the European research project Sexhum (Sexual Humanitarianism: Migration, Sex Work and Trafficking) that proposed an innovative approach inspired by Jean Rouch’s ethnofictions.
"SEXHUM’s films emerge from the co-creative writing of fictional characters and stories as a strategic way for migrant sex workers to analyse and express their individual and collective understandings and experiences of agency and exploitation. They were co-created, produced and edited in collaboration with associations representing communities of migrant sex workers, some of whose members also acted the roles and histories they wrote. This methodology seeks to maximise the possibility for migrant sex workers to own the terms of their representation while protecting their identities from stigmatisation, when they so wish." (Sexhum website)
Bitter Sweet was co-realized by the researcher Nicola Mai in cooperation with the collective of migrant sex workers Les Roses d'Acier and the filmmaker Xiaowa Niu. It is based on a scenario written by 11 Chinese migrant women during eight workshops co-animated by the researchers Hélène Le Bail, Ting Chen, Calogero Giametta and Nicola Mai with the support of the NGO Doctors of the World.
The film was financially supported by the European Research Council, The Institut Convergences Migrations and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Debate (in English and French) with :
- A member of the collectif Roses d'Acier - Alliance of Chinese Migrant Women
- Hélène Le Bail, researcher, CNRS-Sciences Po Paris, ICM
- Xiaowa NIU, filmmaker, producer, director of the Film Festival Allers-Retours
- Sarah-Marie Maffesoli, isex work advocacy coordinator at Médecins du Monde
- Nicola Mai , researcher and film director (tbc)
