Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000)

Documentary look at the 1996-97 effort of the dancers and support staff at a San Francisco peep show, The Lusty Lady, to unionize. Angered by arbitrary and race-based wage policies, ... See full summary »

Directors:

Vicky Funari, Julia Query

Writers:

Vicky Funari, Julia Query

Stars:

Julia Query, Jane, Siobhan Brooks

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Julia Query	...	Herself - Stripper
Jane	...	Herself - Stripper
Siobhan Brooks	...	Herself - Stripper (as Siobhan)
Kristina	...	Herself - Stripper
Ellen	...	Herself - Stripper
Darrell	...	Himself - General Manager, Lusty Lady (as Darrell)
Scott	...	Himself - Support Staff
Star	...	Herself - Stripper
Joyce Wallace	...	Herself - Julia's Mother (as Dr. Joyce Wallace)
Stephanie Batey	...	Herself - SEIU Negotiator
Velvette	...	Herself - Stripper
Elise	...	Herself - Support Staff
Johanna	...	Herself - Stripper
Isis	...	Herself - Stripper
Summer	...	Herself - Stripper

Storyline

Documentary look at the 1996-97 effort of the dancers and support staff at a San Francisco peep show, The Lusty Lady, to unionize. Angered by arbitrary and race-based wage policies, customers' surreptitious video cameras, and no paid sick days or holidays, the dancers get help from the Service Employees International local and enter protracted bargaining with the union-busting law firm that management hires. We see the women work, sort out their demands, and go through the difficulties of bargaining. The narrator is Julia Query, a dancer and stand-up comedian who is reluctant to tell her mother, a physician who works with prostitutes, that she strips.

---

Plot Keywords:

f rated | female nudity | striptease | peep show | mother daughter relationship | 

---

Genres:

Documentary

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

March 2000 (USA)

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,673, 20 October 2000, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$48,752, 19 November 2000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Constant Communication, Farm Fresh Films, Lazy Eight

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in SexTV: Early Puberty/Live Nude Girls Unite/Adding Up AIDS (2001)

---

Soundtracks

For Strippers Only
Written by Bill Grundy, Morris Levy and Sonny Lester
Performed by Sonny Lester and his Orchestra
Courtesy of Rhino/EMI Longitude Music Co.
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

Look for the union label

This film relates the efforts of "exotic dancers" at a San Francisco establishment called The Lusty Lady to organize a labor union and improve their working conditions.

The narrator and central character is Julia Query, a feminist, Jewish, lesbian, stand-up comic, who turned to stripping to make ends meet. The film relates the conditions the strippers worked under, how they decided to organize the union and negotiated their first contract. The club apparently engaged in arbitrary and discriminatory practices, for example, classifying the dancers by race, hair color and other physical attributes.

Negotiating the first contract took many months and the film shows the agony of making decisions on what was and was not negotiable.

On the one hand the dancers do have legitimate grievances, on the other the work they do is sleazy and some would say antisocial and not to be encouraged. While their working conditions are not ideal, they are not coal miners or migrant workers. Compared to some other jobs, strippers have it pretty easy.

Another plot line of the film is Julia's relationship with her mother. Her mother is a physician in New York, who as it happens, works with prostitutes. Julia has not told her mother what she does for a living. When Julia is asked to speak at a conference on the "sex industry" she discovers her mother will also be at the conference and she can no longer put off revealing her occupation to her mother. Needless to say, her mother is not at all pleased and the two become estranged for some months.

The film has moments of humor and drama. The production values are amateurish, in some scenes the color is off (although that could have been due to the poor quality of the print). The film contain adult language and nudity.