The Red Project aims to offering a fresh insight into the lives of sex workers through seasons of films, discussions and events. Too often, abuse perpetrated on sex workers is considered a minor issue for the media, the general public and even some feminists. The season aims to raise awareness amongst the general public and professionals of how stigmatised representations of sex workers can have a life-threatening impact upon them.

The Red Project provides also a platform for collaborations with sex workers' organizations in order to have a voice, so they can engage with communities to educate the general public and access community support to end violence against those who work in the sex trade.

The pilot edition of the Red Project (funded by Awards 4 All/Big Lottery Fund) was held at the Phoenix cinema in Leicester 2015. Each film screening was followed by a Q/A session with professionals, comedians, academics, filmmakers and activists from the UK and Italy. The event had great success in attracting and engaging a very diverse audience. This has made us realize that there is a real need for people to have better understanding about sex work and sex workers; a need for more platforms to promote local projects and organizations and to facilitate interaction.

Thus, we thought about touring the project: similar program but more guest speakers. We found two other excellent partners and venues in Nottingham: POW-Nottingham, New Art Exchange and Nottingham Contemporary agreed to work in partnership with us and help in developing community links and engagement. The second successful edition (again, funded by Award 4 All / Big Lottery Fund) took place at New Art Exchange and Nottingham Contemporary between November and December 2016. Among the speakers, we had the film-maker and anthropologist Professor Nick Mai and Dr Porpora Marcasciano, director of Divergenti International Trans Film Festival (Bologna, Italy). Again, the Red Project drew a great audience and the conversation felt really significant and clearly tapped into issues that the audience care greatly about.

So, we have been encouraged to organize a new edition. This year, the Red Project will address difficult questions relating to migration, trafficking and sex work. The event will take place in Derby and Nottingham in partnership with POW-Nottingham and the London-based theatre company Experimental Experience CIC / SWO and in collaboration with Quad Cinema (Derby), City Arts, New Art Exchange and Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham).