The Foxy Merkins, Lesbian Prostitution, and You

Photo: The Foxy Merkins Team

Writer-director Madeleine Olnek, who also created the quirky B-movie riff Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, is back withThe Foxy Merkins. Part farce of classic bromance films, part serious examination of sex work, the film (whichscreens tonight at NewFest), follows two homeless lesbian prostitutes as they attempt to make a living in Manhattan. Sound like fun?

The buddy comedy seeks to empower its audience by positively portraying women of multiple body types, economic classes, and orientations. Eschewing the typical approach to prostitution, Foxy Merkins eschews negative judgments and, instead, attempts to give a more lighthearted point of view with its slice-of-life style of storytelling, lending the characters a feeling of normalcy from which other films often purposefully shy away. Less a desperate indication of being defeated and more of a routine, sex work has become a way of life for the movie's two main characters.

Shot in a guerrilla style, the movie adopts a purposefully awkward tone to address realistically what are, for its target audience, immediate and close-to-home issues by lampooning everything from homeless living situations to the typical clientele of lesbian sex workers to the clothing chain Talbot's.

Watch the teaser/trailer below:

THE FOXY MERKINS -- teaser/trailer from Codependent Lesbian Space Alien on Vimeo.