Xaviera Hollander: The Happy Hooker

Film Synopsis

Xaviera Hollander: The Happy Hooker
Director: Robert Dunlap
Year: 2008
Country: USA
Duration: 68 minutes


During the sexual liberation of the ‘60s and ‘70s, sex suddenly emerged as groovy, hip and, most importantly, in the public eye. Enter Xaviera Hollander. Growing up in Indonesia in the ‘40s (including spending the war years at a Japanese internment camp) and Holland in the ‘50s, Xaviera moved to America in the early ‘60s. Here she famously earned her living as a hooker, hanging out with the rich and powerful, and truly exploring the erotic possibilities of her life as a bisexual.  Her biography, from which this documentary draws its title, became a best seller.

Drawing on a uniquely personal narration by Hollander, the film tells her story from casual sex through to life as a hooker and now erotic and sexological author, as a lesbian, as an experimenter in sex, and a woman. More than just biography, this is also the story of the sexual revolution, full of rare and unseen archival footage.  Alongside interviews with sex positive feminists such as Annie Sprinkle, the film offers a candid presentation of the era after the invention of the Pill and before the advent of HIV. A unique period when, despite the free sex, swinging, orgies, and brothels, there was something of an air of innocence to the entire proceedings.

Awards
2008 Best Documentary Melbourne Underground Film Festival