Health Initiative for Men (HIM) presents:

Join us on June 2, International Sex Workers Day, for a special screening of HOOKERS ON DAVIE at the Rio Theatre at 7:30 PM. This landmark documentary explores the history, resilience, and activism of Vancouver’s sex work community, an important part of our city’s story. Following the screening, there will be a live Q&A with director Janis Cole.

All proceeds from the event will support Living in Community and PACE Society, helping advance the safety, rights, and well-being of sex workers. Join us to learn, reflect, and stand in solidarity.

"Before they were purged from the area in advance of Expo 86, sex workers strolled Davie Street in droves, turning Vancouver’s West End into ​“the prostitution capital of Canada.” Collectively organized, and working without pimps, they would meet regularly to discuss safety and self-defence, distribute ​“bad trick” sheets, and debate health controls and procedures. Based on eight months of advance research by the filmmakers, and another two months spent gaining the trust of their subjects, this Genie Award-winning documentary is less lurid exposé than activist ethnography. Tender and frank, compassionate and confrontational, Hookers on Davie is not just a major contribution to the direct cinema tradition in Canada; it also emerges, in retrospect, as a poignant portrait of a vibrant community that would soon be decimated by drugs, police harassment, and serial sexual violence when forcibly relocated to the Downtown Eastside." The Cinematheque

“A vital time capsule, capturing a pre-internet period when sex workers walked the street … The film’s many revelations are matched by the inescapable sense that Cole and Dale cared deeply about the people whose lives they were reflecting.” POV Magazine

Tuesday, June 2
Doors 7:00 pm | Film 7:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time.

HOOKERS ON DAVIE (Janis Cole & Holly Dale, 1984 / 88 mins / NR) Filmmakers Holly Dale and Janis Cole explore the culture of Davie Street, located in the underbelly of Vancouver, where dozens of prostitutes work and live every day. Surprisingly, they find that the sex trade there is stable and largely non-violent, and that the women who work on Davie Street meet daily to discuss safety and health issues and don't use pimps. The film also includes candid interviews with the prostitutes and footage of negotiations with potential clients.