Sex work on spotlight at Encounters South African International Documentary Film Festival

Sex workers are organised

The coalition and its member organisations have successfully pressured the government to reopen Project 107, the South African Law Reform Commission's review of sex work criminalisation. Notably, South Africa remains one of few nations systematically documenting violence against sex workers. The Zwelethu Mthetwa verdict also established an important legal precedent for severe sentencing in cases involving murdered sex workers.

Though relatively small, the campaigners demonstrate considerable influence across government spheres, achieving several significant victories in advancing sex workers' rights.

However, Project 107 ultimately maintained criminalisation, offering only a commitment to open decriminalisation proposals for public consultation. While government officials frequently dismiss campaigners as disruptive for tactics like protests and heckling, the documentary reveals their opposition extends even to symbolic demonstrations including banner displays or umbrella protests.

The struggle continues

The film deliberately resists a neat resolution, choosing instead to foreground the campaigners' lived experiences and ongoing struggles. This narrative approach powerfully mirrors the unfinished nature of the decriminalisation campaign itself. However, the documentary's impact is occasionally undermined by uneven execution, disjointed scenes that stray from the central narrative, non-unified viewpoints among campaigners, and an overall tone that sometimes veers into excessive informality.

These structural flaws, while notable, do not diminish the film's fundamental argument: the urgent need to protect sex workers' safety. In a nation grappling with alarmingly high rates of gender-based violence, the campaigners present decriminalisation as a vital protective measure. Ultimately, Womxn Working demonstrates documentary cinema's unique capacity to challenge power structures and amplify marginalised voices, perfectly embodying the impact-driven ethos of the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival.

This review emanates from the Talent Press programme, an initiative of Talents Durban in collaboration with the Durban FilmMart Institute and FIPRESCI. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author (Tshi Malatji) and cannot be considered as constituting an official position of the organisers.