Small Talk

I did phone sex professionally for almost a decade and then I made a horror movie about it.

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I’ve been writing about representations of PSOs in film over on my Patreon. This post is public if you wanna check it out

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Guess Who’s Back

Back again

Can I post 

Without getting censored by some men

We shall see!

[anarchyisfunandfree]

[smalltalkmovie]

Phone Sex with a Twist - An Interview with Nicole Solomon - The Nopebook

Nicole Solomon is a Brooklyn based writer, filmmaker and phone sex worker who has managed to combine these skills to create award winning short film.

The Nopebook is a new feminist pop culture site that interviewed me about Small Talk, phone sex, Trump, and more.

[smalltalkmovie]

Phone Sex Operators Are Suing Tele Pay USA for Back Pay

Tele Pay USA, one of the nation’s largest phone-sex purveyors, was recently hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging that it has cheated at least one employee, and possibly hundreds of others, out of compensation.

Good. Hope they win. Glad I never worked at this place, or anywhere that fucked me over this bad on pay. Sheesh.

[smalltalkmovie]

Exclusive: Gabourey Sidibe Writes About Working as a $15-an-Hour Phone-Sex Operator

In her new memoir, *This Is Just My Face,* Sidibe writes how she learned that "a good talker makes the caller forget he’s paying to talk to you."

Omg. OMG.

So many feels. 

Love this piece. Can vouch for the acute accuracy of much of it.

Wow. Feelings. Memories. Etc.

[trashcanland-deactivated2018120]

[janetmock-deactivated20221031]

On the Women’s March ‘Guiding Vision’ and its inclusion of Sex Workers

I am proud of the work I’ve done as part of the Women’s March policy table – a collection of women and folk engaged in crucial feminist, racial and social justice work across various intersections in our country. I helped draft the vision and I wrote the line “…and we stand in solidarity with sex workers’ rights movements.” It is not a statement that is controversial to me because as a trans woman of color who grew up in low-income communities and who advocates, resists, dreams and writes alongside these communities, I know that underground economies are essential parts of the lived realities of women and folk. I know sex work to be work. It’s not something I need to tiptoe around. It’s not a radical statement. It’s a fact. My work and my feminism rejects respectability politics, whorephobia, slut-shaming and the misconception that sex workers, or folks engaged in the sex trades by choice or circumstance, need to be saved, that they are colluding with the patriarchy by “selling their bodies.” I reject the continual erasure of sex workers from our feminisms because we continue to conflate sex work with the brutal reality of coercion and trafficking. I reject the policing within and outside women’s movements that shames, scapegoats, rejects, erases and shuns sex workers. I cannot speak to the internal conflicts at the Women’s March that have led to the erasure of the line I wrote for our collective vision but I have been assured that the line will remain in OUR document. The conflicts that may have led to its temporary editing will not leave until we, as feminists, respect THE rights of every woman and person to do what they want with their body and their lives. We will not be free until those most marginalized, most policed, most ridiculed, pushed out and judged are centered. There are no throwaway people, and I hope every sex worker who has felt shamed by this momentarily erasure shows up to their local March and holds the collective accountable to our vast, diverse, complicated realities.

[graveyardshiftsisters]

Manini Gupta as Al in Small Talk (2014)

“For me, SMALL TALK definitely spoke to the harassment that women experience in many avenues of life, particularly in the beginning sequence when Al, working as a temp, is harassed by a client. The idea that women cannot have sexual agency without being sluts (Al is consistently berated as a slut, simply for providing a service that also helps pay her bills), that women exist solely for the sexual pleasure of men and that any misstep from this narrative justifies violence and abuse is one that pervades society at multiple levels. It doesn’t take much effort to call up the vitriol spewed online at any woman who dares speak or act “out of turn,” let alone news articles on women killed or injured for spurning the unwanted advances of men.” -Jamie Righetti

Written & Directed by Nicole Witte Solomon

imdb.com http://dailygrindhouse.com/thewire/small-talk/

[whedonesque]

[fuckyeahqueermusic]

FY!QM Reviews-The Shondes’ Brighton

So, I’m a big fan of The Shondes. This is a well known fact. I’ve been listening to them since their first EP, and so my opinion is definitely skewed in a positive direction no matter what they do, but I truly believe their latest album, Brighton, is their best.

Brighton is gentle and nuanced in a way that The Shondes have never really showed. Their strength has always been soaring, fist pumping anthems, and make no mistake, they haven’t abandoned them (”True North” is perhaps one of the best they’ve written), but even the anthems have a mellower edge to them. And this is not a bad thing, it’s an evolution, it’s something new and exciting from a remarkably consistent band. As much as I liked their last record, The Garden, getting the same thing again would have been disappointing. Songs like “My Ghost” and “The House” are given room to meander a bit with more delicate lines from new guitarist Courtney Robbins. A lot of them are reminiscent of 90s emo and indie, with more clean reverb than fuzzy chords. And they play wonderfully off Elijah Oberman’s violin, weaving together more tightly than they have in the past.

As always, Louisa Solomon is a powerhouse, and I’m so glad that The Shondes have finally started to pick up a bit more attention, so that her voice can get the attention it deserves. I will probably say this for every review I write about them, but she has the best voice in rock. Hands down. And on this album she shows off a lot more of her range. She’s vulnerable and hopeful, and it’s absolutely wonderful to listen to.

If you haven’t been listening to The Shondes, I think now is the time to start, and this album is a great introduction. With any luck, this will be the one that gets them on everyone’s radar. They certainly deserve it.

Brighton is available on Exotic Fever Records, and you can grab it over on bandcamp.

[smalltalkmovie]

So nice to read this review. Keep an eye out for videos directed by me for some of the songs mentioned above, coming soon

[fuckyeahwomenfilmdirectors]

Five free things to do to help women directors

1. Make a request to purchase their work at your local library

I get it, not everyone can shell out $30-50 for a DVD of every rare movie they want to see. But you know who does have that kind of money? Your library. Hurry up and do it quickly though because libraries often will limit their collections to things that came out within the last year or two.

2. Check out their work from your local library 

Did you know that libraries pay royalties to the artists every time you check something out? Did you know that libraries are also a great way to find all those hard to find often out of print works that continue to become obscure as mediums shift. Did you throw out your old DVD player? Don’t have a blu-ray? No problem! Most libraries are now offering streaming video. As long as you have a library account you can now stream anything from Joanna Hogg to Chantal Akerman in good conscience.

3. Review their work

So many times I go to check out a movie on imdb, letterboxd or amazon and find nothing in the review section. Get in the habit of writing reviews for the stuff you like, even the stuff you don’t like telling people not to waste their time! Bad reviews have prompted me to write good ones to counter people’s opinions I thought were wrong. Good ones have helped me watch movies I might not otherwise have seen. I’ve also used reviews to give trigger warnings or to warn people off poor prints of movies. They’re useful and they help people discover great art. 

4. Follow their social media accounts

Increasingly we’re living in an era where social media is a kingmaker. People make professional connections their all the time but I’ve been dispirited to see so many talented wonderful directors who barely have any followers. This is a great way to interact with directors you like and get updates on their projects right from the source. 

5. Fill out their wiki pages

There is nothing more depressing than when I Google a filmmaker to find out more about them and find their wiki page woefully out of date, if it exists at all. Wiki has a huge problem with a lack of female contributors and this translates into a lack of pages on women filmmakers and their work. After you watch a movie, go to its wiki page and see if it has a summary. If not, write one! If you watch a movie and notice that there’s no biographical info on the director create a page. 

[vasorland]

[fuckyeahcourtneylove]

on French tv. February 1997.

[smalltalkmovie]

Scribblin Short Films: Small Talk & Pieces

Cult & Feind let you know what movies are   Just Shit   and what awesome flicks we deem as just being    THE SHIT!   Ratings are on a scale of 0-5 Bloody...

Another nice review of Small Talk :)

[graveyardshiftsisters]

Jean Grae as Gale Winters in Small Talk (2014)

Synopsis:  A young phone sex operator named Al’s career takes a strange turn as her more unpleasant clients begin dying under mysterious circumstances after speaking with her. Al is left with sudden, intense headaches after each incident, the likes of which she has never experienced before. Is this coincidence, or is she somehow causing these deaths? Al attempts to keep her grip on reality and enlists her best friend investigate–battling violent ex boyfriends and the horror of the service industry along the way.

Written & Directed by Nicole Witte Solomon

imdb.com

[smalltalkmovie]

This scene was so much fun to film. Hope I get to direct Jean again soon. She is the best.

[smalltalkmovie]

The 4MileCircus Friday the 13th Show

If you’ve been following any of the 4MileCircus accounts on Social Media for the last month, you may have seen we’re throwing a little party tomorrow. If you haven’t, because for …

Learn more about tomorrow’s FREE screening of Small Talk and more at The 4MileCircus Friday the 13th Show!

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Today is THE LAST DAY to get preorder-only bonus features with your purchase of Small Talk: The Deluxe Edition! See the rest of this weirdo drunken interview with me conducted by ST’s award winning composer, Shawn Setaro! Hear all about which parts of Small Talk are autobiographical, how we made the gore, and more more more! All that plus the actual film (Featuring Manini Gupta, Ruthellen Cheney, Jeremy Bobb, Martin Bisi and Jean Grae), DELETED SCENES, audition footage, tons of behind-the-scenes featurettes, trailers, the award-winning score featuring Satish and Brian Viglione, poster art, film stills, the shooting script and more that I’m forgetting, all for the low low price of $4.99!

http://www.4milecircus.com/store