About the Film
One female comedian with many voices on a journey to better understand the sex industry,
Executive Produced by Meryl Streep, Sell/Buy/Date is a hybrid doc/narrative following Tony winning performer and comedian Sarah Jones. As a mixed-race Black woman in America, Sarah, alongside the multicultural characters she’s known for, explores her own personal relationship to one of the most misunderstood issues in our current culture: the sex industry, and the surprisingly diverse range of people whose lives it touches. Through interviews and even celebrity cameos, this film poses the question: how can we as a society have a healthy relationship to sex, power, race and our economy, without exploitation or stigma?
Inspired by the Play
Sell/Buy/Date is inspired by the critically acclaimed hit Off-Broadway solo show of the same name. It was written and performed by Sarah Jones and premiered at The Manhattan Theatre Club in New York before going on to Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
Directed by Carolyn Cantor, Sell/Buy/Date is a multi-character, exuberant journey informed and inspired by the real-life stories of people with lived experience in the sex industry. Brimming with Jones’ dazzling medley of masterful, multicultural characterizations, the play presents an honest, moving, and even humorous look at a complex and controversial subject, all while preserving the full humanity of voices seldom heard in the theatre.
Developed over several years of research in deep partnership with those involved with the sex trade, excerpts and characters from the play have been performed at various events, including the White House and TED.
Watch the 2015 TEDtalk excerpt of Sell/Buy/Date