Anora,<\/a>\u201d and he served as a producer here, offering feedback on their script and numerous cuts of the film. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025 and is now available on video on demand.<\/p>\nWerhun and Bazuin recently discussed the film\u2019s style and goals in a joint video interview edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
How much were you consciously trying to make this different from other documentaries about sex workers?<\/p>\n
Bazuin: I wanted this to feel like a storybook come to life \u2014 we literally jump inside Andrea\u2019s book with Andrea as our storyteller and reenactor of her own experiences. People might expect a film about sex work to be be drab or dour, and we wanted to confront that right away with vivid colors and a stylized expressionistic mode that can support all the moods of her experiences. Stylized films sometimes can contain more truth than realistic forms.<\/p>\n
Werhun: Cinema verit\u00e9, which is typically how sex workers are portrayed in documentaries, inevitably comes off as voyeuristic.<\/p>\n
Most documentaries about sex work don\u2019t include R-rated reenactments starring the film\u2019s subject. Why include that?<\/p>\n
Bazuin: We wanted to disrupt expectations audiences might have and to make it a more human portrait.<\/p>\n
Werhun: I love performing and I\u2019d love to have an acting career and this was an excellent showcase of my abilities.<\/p>\n
But also it would feel censored if there weren\u2019t any tits, if there were no sex scenes in a film about sex. I\u2019m not ashamed of the fact that I\u2019ve used this body to make a living. Nicole and I crafted the scenes meticulously to convey a point that is artistic, funny and educational.<\/p>\n
Bazuin: The movie runs the gamut tonally. It\u2019s a \u201cTrojan whore\u201d for a feminist and sex worker manifesto for political and social change, so we also show the challenges and the assaults that Andrea experienced because we want laws that would make this work safer, including the decriminalization of sex work.<\/p>\n
Andrea, why interview your boyfriend and mom on camera? <\/p>\n
Werhun: The sex worker stereotype is that we\u2019re isolated and vulnerable, with no support systems; that stereotype makes predators think we\u2019re easy victims. I wanted to dispel the idea that we are incapable of having loving, meaningful relationships.<\/p>\n
This is presented as a film memoir yet you then include other sex workers\u2019 perspectives.<\/p>\n
Werhun: Unfortunately, when it comes to sex work storytelling, there is a proliferation of cis white, educated women and those tend to be the stories that get platforms. But that experience is minute compared to the wide range of sex workers, so it was vital to expand the narrative to include other perspectives, whether it\u2019s race, gender orientation or class. What we have in common is that we all deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.<\/p>\n
You say you\u2019re rewriting the usual story of sex workers as victims or villains but you were a victim, both of exploitative working conditions and sexual assault. Will sex workers always be victimized without legal protection?<\/p>\n
Werhun: Most of our clients are not bad people, they\u2019re paying for a service we\u2019re willing to provide. But under any criminalized model, there is inherently exploitation and people don\u2019t feel safe accessing justice. If we don\u2019t have labor rights, we\u2019re going to be victimized. Even strippers are not comfortable going to the police.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re fighting a society that wants to keep our work in the dark, to pretend that this isn\u2019t happening, that it can be abolished by throwing people into prison. Criminalization is harmful and guarantees there are more victims.<\/p>\n
Where does OnlyFans fit into the sex work equation?<\/p>\n
Werhun: The beauty of escorting and stripping is that you can dip in and out. With OnlyFans you\u2019re working 24\/7, creating content, interacting with your fans and doing constant self-promotion. With sex work in person, no one has to know about it but OnlyFans will follow you for the rest of your life. I did it for a year and a half and it paid my rent but it\u2019s not my preferred type of sex work. It\u2019s great for people who live online.<\/p>\n
How did audiences respond to the film at festivals?<\/p>\n
Werhun: Obviously, creating this film was a trust fall. The film is a song and dance on behalf of all whores, trusting humanity to hold me and not hurt me. I was pleasantly surprised by how audiences warmly embraced it. Some people were working through their prejudices in real time and it\u2019s amazing to watch them transform. We hope the film can inspire social change. If it pulls your heartstrings, then when issues of criminalization and legal change arise, people might say, \u201cI remember that movie and I think whores deserve to have equal rights with everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> When Andrea Werhun started writing her memoir, \u201cModern Whore,\u201d nearly a decade ago, she was afraid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[209504,1549,209507,146,25052,501,878,85,46,2400,209506,209505,1266,22398,209503,209502,789,209501],"class_list":["post-447742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-andrea-werhun","tag-documentary","tag-easy-victim","tag-entertainment","tag-experience","tag-family","tag-film","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-life","tag-modern-whore","tag-nicole-bazuin","tag-people","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-sex-work","tag-sex-worker","tag-story","tag-werhun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}