Documentary, 29 mins, Dust Films, 2008
Pretty Girls is the story of the biggest social
challenge facing modern China today: the ever widening gap between the
rich and the poor. It is told through the eyes of a young sex worker in
Beijing. Aifeng, a migrant worker from Jiangxi province left her home
in rural China to work in Beijing. She is struggling to support her
entire family and provides for them with the salary she earns in the
city. Her two children need to go to school and her older relatives are
unable to work. She is making the ultimate sacrifice by leaving them
all behind. The film begins during Chinese new year 2008, it is also
the run up to the Beijing Olympics. The massage parlour where Aifeng
works doubles as a brothel and every day her and the other women sit by
the glass front door trying to lure clients inside. As they spend every
day trapped inside the shop, outside the cityscape is changing and
gearing up for the Olympics. During the Olympic 'clean up' brothels
around the city are forced to close and the women discover their shop
will be shut down. Jobless and unable to afford life in
Beijing Aifeng must return home to face an uncertain future.
Pretty Girls premiered at the Women Make Waves festival in Taiwan 2009
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/3722/Pretty-Girls/TUE9PStP
http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/catalogue/browse/?id=7B78B68F0a35116731gUnPDA091C
