filed under Film
Happy Endings: A Documentary On RI’s Legal Prostitution
3:21PM ON
06/24/2008
BY
Eric Smith
The first trailer for documentary filmmakers T. L. Hurley and Nick Marcoux’s Happy Endings? about the infamous and legal spa/massage/prostitution industry in Rhode Island, has been watched over 100,000 times on YouTube in the past two months, and a second trailer has just been released. The doc follows several “characters” involved with the trade; spa owners, workers, clients, even Mayor David Cicilline and Representative Joanne Giannini weigh in on the issue. From the trailers, it seems like a well made film, except for a few comically voice-altered interviews with some of the workers and proprietors. Although the film seems to exist only in the form of these two trailers for now, let’s hope it gets released in a full format sometime soon.
Happy Endings official website, YouTube trailers
June 24th, 2008 at 3:53PM
Marc Says:
I have to say, I really like that prostitution is legal here, it keeps it ‘off the streets’ (for the most part), and if we could fix the trafficking problem, it could be a really viable industry.
I’d like to see some regulation, though. I wish -all- employers in the state were required to offer affordable health care packages to their full-time workers, and there should be a ‘minimum fraction’ of this sort of trade that goes to the workers themselves. Sex workers should have to get tested for STDs and get training for first aid, hygiene, and safer sex.
If we could actually -legalize- gay marriage (not judge it -not- illegal like MA and CA), start ticketing those who possess drugs instead of imprisoning them, and regulate the sex industry, we could turn vice into a huge profit center and out-of-state money draw.
I’d actually like to see gambling done -right- too. Lets open a high-end casino in downtown providence with a dress code, $100 minimum, connect it to a hotel to keep drunks off the street.
We were once the dissenters’ state, I’d like to go back to that. We ought to give the christian right a wallop and open up to all the possibilities of true freedom.
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June 24th, 2008 at 4:12PM
Roberts Says:
“We were once the dissenters’ state, I’d like to go back to that.”
Amen.
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June 24th, 2008 at 4:17PM
Eric Smith Says:
Here’s a nice note we got from the filmmaker:
“Thanks for checking out the film. We have pretty much completed it. It is 80 minutes long, feature length documentary. We entered it into the RI Film Festival, but we are not too holding our breath on that festival. Showing the “underbelly” of the “renaissance city” is probably not going to happen in a festival that has the City of Providence as it’s sponsor. We will be entering other festivals and hope for a art house theater release in the near future.”
Peace
T
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June 25th, 2008 at 1:49AM
carla Says:
dear brother,
excellent comment.
xoxo
sister
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June 25th, 2008 at 1:11PM
matthew Says:
i don’t know joanne giannini personally, so my opinions about her are entirely based on melodramatic projo editorials and the 70-foot tall inflatable snowman she puts on her lawn every december, but oh my god do i wish that woman would go away.
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October 20th, 2008 at 6:15AM
Betty Says:
Between the snowman, that voice and that hideous green outfit she wears every year to the St, Patricks day parade, you would think Joanne Giannini’s constituents would realize how embarraing she is. But, just like sheep, the pull that (D) lever on election day and boom she is in.
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