Don’t Hate Strippers: Fight the Government has been selected for the in-Competition Documentary Feature segment of the 2008 Hollywood Black Film Fest to be held June 3-8, 2008 in Beverly Hills, CA and in-Competition Documentary segment of the 2008 San Francisco Black Film Festival, June 4-8 and 11-15.
The film is the true story about Black Male Exotic Dancers, from 10/06 to 4/07, who stood up and fought the Prince Georges County Government in federal court for their Constitutional Right to perform exotic dance for women and won!
Despite the title, there is no nudity in the film.
This film will take you to a world that you have never been before or let you see a whole world that you think you know in a completely different way! It is a very good piece of character driven entertainment! The film was shot in HD!
This film was made for African American moviegoers who want to see their own concerns and struggles — their own lives told from their perspective. To often in film, Black Men are portrayed as innately savage, animalistic, destructive and criminal. They are depicted as an anti-social predators terrifying the community in which they dwell. This film depicts Black People (as they truly are) as people relating to other people — not as mere plot devices and not as characters defined solely by how they relate to the white world.
When the government tried to take away the dancers constitutional rights they did not riot in the streets or picket in front of a government building. Instead, they got a lawyer and went to court to fight the government. This is a story that the government does not want you to know about. It is not often that Black Men fight the government in federal court with a Black lawyer and win!
Synopsis
“Don’t Hate: Strippers Fight the Government” is a documentary about black male exotic dancers who perform non-obscene dance routines for women. These are regular guys, law-abiding and tax paying citizens who choose to entertain women. The women are from all walks of life and prefer to watch male entertainment rather than go to clubs or happy hours where they have to deal with the unwelcomed advances and harassment from male patrons.
Prince George’s County, Maryland, a local government, passed an ordinance that among other things, prohibited tipping of dancers during their performance, restricted a patron’s distance from a performer to 6 ft and required a male entertainer to wear a shirt and short anytime he is not on stage.
The ordinance also made it a crime to touch a dancer while he is in a g-string. This docu will address a lot of the myths surrounding male adult entertainers. It will also show you that they are regular people, like you and I with families, goals, and dreams. You will see the steps that the dancers took to fight the government in order to maintain their livelihoods and support their families.
On April 12, 2007 in United States District Court for the District of Maryland, Baltimore Division, United States District Judge Marvin J. Garbis issued a Permanent Injunction against the law. This is a story of how a small group was able to stand up and fight the government in Federal court (with a Black lawyer) and win.
