BLOWIN’ UP – Review by MaryAnn Johanson

When you leave a pimp, it’s called ‘blowin up,’” says a woman in this extraordinary documentary, who is trying to do just that. She is getting help with this — a task, she says, that is not only difficult, for many reasons of which financial necessity is but one, but also dangerous — from the Human Trafficking Intervention Court in the New York City borough of Queens. Here, judge Toko Serita has no interest in sending to prison any of the women who appear before her, women who have been arrested on prostitution charges who range from desperate locals with limited opportunities who see little choice but a life on the streets to undocumented immigrants who have been trafficked into the US and forced into sex work. (The judge is also not interested in getting anyone deported.) Instead, Serita ensures that the women, some of whom are quite young, receive counseling, help into school or jobs, and gentle pushes onto a more positive track for their lives, via organization such as Girls Education & Mentoring Services (GEMS) and others, representatives of which are always on hand in the courtroom to advocate for these defendants. Continue reading…

EDITOR’S NOTE: Blowin’ Up is AWFJ’s Movie of the Week for April 5, 2019