Festivalimpressions 2013 - Thematic Day on Forced Prostitution and Prostitution
out of Poverty
The exhibition on Forced Prostitution and Prostitution out of Poverty in the Foyer of the cinema Museum…
… greatly impresses the viewers.
They can get further information at the TERRE DES FEMMES-table, where also the activists from the Tuebingen group of Zonta International are available for a talk. Zonta made the round table conversation on the theme day possible through their financial support.
Lukas Roegler is presenting his movie “Ware Frau” about Nigerian forced prostitutes in Germany and leads a motivated conversation with the audience.
Afterwards the local radio station “Wüste Welle” prepares for the live broadcast of the round table conversation on Forced Prostitution and Prostitution out of Poverty…
… as an introduction to the movie the trailer “Stop the Traffik” is shown
– with surprises not just for the cinema audience.
The round table conversation is opened by festival director Irene Jung…
… who
points out, that a society free from prostitution is not only a desired
utopia, but also lived reality in many places around the world: in matriarchal
societies, about which three movies will be shown on the following day.
While introducing the predominantly male participants of the round table,
she mentions that at the film festival it is important to not only depict
men as perpetrators, but to also make them visible as committed fighters
for the human rights of women.
Sabine
Constabel has been working for two decades as a social worker in the public
health office in Stuttgart, offering support for prostitutes. She also
works at the Café La Strada, which offers retreat and counseling
for prostitutes. Out of her practical experience she delivers shocking
and touching insights into the situation of prostitutes in Stuttgart. The
prostitute with self-determination – if she has ever existed – has
long since left the industry and in her place are now vulnerable young
women from Romania and Hungary who have to provide for a living for their
families in their home countries.
Helmut
Sporer, a detective superintendent from Augsburg is the author of several
documents: the “Augsburger Weg” (Augsburg’s Path), a
position statement at the European Parliament, and a position statement
he presented in the German Bundestag about drafting a law for combating
human trafficking and for monitoring places of prostitution. Mr. Sporer,
from his experiences in criminal police investigation, could confirm a
lot of what Sabine Constabel has observed as a social worker in the field. “Prostitutes
are de facto outlawed, because they are registered nowhere, and if one
of them disappears, is maybe killed, nobody can verify this”. His
conclusion is, that he law of 2002 has strengthened the rights of brothel
owners and even granted them authority to issue directives: they can determine
with how many customers the prostitute has to have intercourse in one night
and with which practices. 
Manfred
Paulus, a retired detective chief superintendent and associate lecturer
at the Police Academy of Baden-Wuerttemberg, who is doing voluntary prevention
work in Eastern Europa against trafficking in women and children – in
cooperation with school headmasters, NGOs and the police. He is explaining
in detail how the networks of organized crime function, to smuggle women
from poor southeastern European countries to Germany. Both detective superintendents
agree that prostitution cannot be separated from the criminal milieu. After
the round table conversation Manfred Paulus engages in the conversation
with the audience on the movie “Made in Ash” about prostitution
out of poverty in Eastern Europe. 
Campus TV is filming the conversation for their features, which are available online.
The audience is magnetized by what they hear.
Lukas
Roegler, a freelancer in the department for documentaries at TV-channel
WDR, has been doing research on the particular fate of Nigerian forced
prostitutes in Europe for several years and has already made his second
film on the topic with “Ware Frau”. He says that the problem
of prostitution is inseparable from the politics on migration.
The conversation is opened by the audience who bring up many questions
to which the different participants give their views.
Photos: Alexander Gonschior