SWEETHEART DEAL at the Brooklyn Film Festival

BROOKLYN, NY — Co-directors Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller make their East Coast Premiere with the award-winning documentary l. Fresh from award-winning runs at the Bend and Seattle International Film Festivals, Sweetheart Deal screens on June 4, 2023 at the Brooklyn Film Festival.

The film is a harrowing journey deep inside the shadowy underworld of addiction, where a helping hand is rare, and often comes at a steep price. In Sweetheart Deal, four female sex workers navigate a minefield of dangers in their struggle to survive on Seattle’s notorious Aurora Avenue (HWY-99).

“All these people out here, they’re f*cking sharks,” Sara, one of the subjects of the film, remarks while stepping into a customer’s waiting SUV.

“The Aurora monsters,” echoes another young woman, “They don’t care…Real friends are really hard to find.”

But in this world, amid the sharks and monsters, one figure seems different: Elliott, the so-called “Mayor of Aurora Avenue,” offers help — a dry place out of the rain, a warm meal, a kind ear, basic medical care, and, when they’re ready, a safe place to ride out the throes of heroin withdrawal, the first step toward finding a way off the streets. His roadside RV is an unlikely oasis — a single ray of hope in this dark, cold place.

“I really value the fact that I can knock on his door and crawl into bed and be safe. That’s one in a million,” says Sara.

Sweetheart Deal is a haunting account of the physical and emotional battle to survive against all odds in seemingly impossible conditions. Heart-wrenching and stranger than fiction, the film is filled with dramatic developments which the filmmakers did not anticipate.

“We hope that viewers feel as inspired as we do by this group of remarkable women facing unspeakable adversity, and their will to survive and rise above it,” said Director Elisa Levine.

Several members of the filmmaking team are available for interviews, including Director Elisa Levine, making her feature debut. Editor Brittany Kaplan is based in Brooklyn, and Supervising Editor/Writer Karen KH Sim is based in Manhattan. One of the women profiled in Sweetheart Deal will be joining the filmmaking team for the post-screening Q&A.

For more information, visit the Brooklyn Film Festival website.

Originally published at https://behindtherabbitproductions.wordpress.com on May 30, 2023.