Covering Media

Sexy Baby (2012)

Opened: 10/19/2012 Limited

Trailer: Click for trailer

Websites: Home, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

Genre: Documentary

Rated: Unrated

A documentary about sexiness and the cyber age.

Synopsis

These days, sex doesn't just sell, it saturates our culture. In the age of runaway social media and "sexting," raunchy rap songs on pop radio and hardcore pornography at the click of a mouse-- what's it like to be a woman? A girl? A teenage boy? Their parents? In this feature documentary, the directors follow a trio of characters to reveal the toll all this titillation is taking on America.

Twelve-year-old Winnie is a bright and precocious proto-feminist dividing time between Mom's house and Dad's in New York City, but not long after the bat mitzvah celebration that marks her entry into adulthood, the Lady Gaga-loving youngster starts growing up faster than her parents can handle. Pressured by remarks from her porn-loving boyfriend, 22-year-old Laura is spending thousands on surgery to have a top-shelf "designer vagina." And though she's officially retired from the adult film industry, 32- year-old Nakita Kash is making her living teaching housewives and college girls how to pole dance like a porno pro. Sexy Baby examines the seismic shift in our society in an age where courtship has been replaced by sexting and kids have access to online porn before sex ed.

About the Characters

Winnifred is a 12-year-old growing up in New York City. She is a bright-eyed emerging feminist starring in a "girl power" play (created and performed by The Arts Effect theater lab). As she comes of age, this savvy and thoughtful teen finds that like all kids her age, she is not impervious to the allure of the Internet and social networking. Subsequently, she struggles with the issue of how much of her life to make public vs. how much to keep private. As children of the cyber age, Winnifred and her friends must also contend with the fact that sometimes they are accidentally exposed to more than they want to see. "We are the pioneers," Winnifred says referring to her generation. Her parents, Ken and Jeni, who are also in uncharted territory, provide guidance and help her navigate a world that did not exist when they were her age.

Laura is a 22-year-old North Carolina kindergarten teacher. Living in a community where it is not uncommon for young women she knows to get breast implants, Laura does not consider it a big leap to undergo a surgery "down there." We follow Laura as she travels to Virginia to have a labia reduction procedure by specialist Dr. Bernard Stern. Ever since her first serious boyfriend compared her body to the porn stars he regularly watched online, Laura has been self-conscious and has wanted to measure up to this new standard of beauty. Her mom, Terry, accompanies her to Virginia to provide loving support even though she cannot quite understand Laura's decision. "If it will enhance her life, I want her to be happy," she says.

Nichole aka Nakita Kash, 32, is a former porn star, and an award-winning pole dancer (she was a finalist on America's Got Talent, Season 3). Easy access to Internet porn and its effects on the mainstream world have enabled Nakita to create a burgeoning business that caters largely to a clientele made up of housewives and college girls. Nakita teaches erotic movement and pole dancing -- her students find it thrilling to learn the art of seduction from a seasoned professional. Meanwhile, we watch as Nichole and her husband Dave settle into a more conventional life and attempt to start a family. "I find women wanting to be like Nakita, but Nichole just wants to be like them," she says.

About the Filmmakers

Jill Bauer, Co-Director, Producer, Sound Operator, was 15 when she landed her first interview with Barbara Walters and was so taken by the interview process that she never stopped asking questions -- especially about relationships, one of her main beats while at the Miami Herald. Bauer is a Hearst and SPJ award-winning journalist and has written for and edited several magazines and newspapers including Esquire, The Dallas Morning News, The New York Times, and launched Smart Kid, a national parenting magazine. She is the author of the nonfiction humor book From "I Do" to "I'll Sue": An Irreverent Compendium for Survivors of Divorce (Penguin Books).

Ronna Gradus, Co-Director, Producer, Director of Photography, was born and raised in New York City. Since a young age she loved to watch people, so when a camera was placed in her hand a documentarian emerged. She graduated with a BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and began her career as a photojournalist. Most notably she was a staff photographer at The Miami Herald where she was dubbed by editors as one of the strongest among the 22-member photography staff. While there, she was sent on several assignments in Cuba and covered Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Brittany Huckabee, Editor and Producer, is an award-winning independent filmmaker with more than a decade of experience directing and producing documentaries for public television and other outlets. Her most recent film, The Mosque in Morgantown (PBS 2009), chronicled conflict in a West Virginia Muslim community. She is the founder and principal of Version One Productions, Inc., and served as a Filmmaker-in-Residence at WGBH, Boston's flagship PBS station. She also works as an editor and camera operator and is particularly drawn to stories about women, religion and human rights. She currently lives in New York.

Abigail E. Disney, Executive Producer, is a filmmaker and philanthropist. Her longtime passion for women's issues and peacebuilding culminated in her first film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, about the Liberian women who peacefully ended their country's fourteen-year civil war. She is currently Executive Producer of the PBS mini-series Women, War & Peace, the most comprehensive global media initiative ever mounted on the role of women in peace and conflict. And along with her husband, Pierre Hauser, Abigail cofounded the Daphne Foundation, which works with low-income communities in the five boroughs of New York City.

Chandra Jessee, Executive Producer, is an activist and venture investor. Her wish to see more balance in the world led her to found the InMaat Foundation, which currently supports charities that promote equality for women and girls. Chandra has produced several films and is a co-executive producer of the award winning film, "NY Export: Opus Jazz." Recently, she was part of a scientific expedition to tag sharks in an MPA in the Bahamas as part of her work supporting ocean's health. When she's not traveling on adventures and expeditions, Chandra lives in New York City.

David Zieff, Creative Consultant, has been editing documentaries, feature films and television for almost three decades. Recently Zieff was a creative consultant on the Oscar Award-winning documentary The Cove, and edited and produced ESPN's Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks. He also won a Peabody Award for the doc miniseries Black Magic. Zieff edited and produced Crazy Love, winner of the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary. He was the supervising editor of the critically acclaimed and multiple awardwinning Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, shaping over 1600 hours of footage into a Sundance hit, and one of the most celebrated music films of all time.

Paul Brill, Composer, is a musician and composer who has scored for TV and films including Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work and Love Free or Die (Sundance, 2012). He has been nominated for 3 Emmy Awards for his film work and recently collaborated with U2 to compose a new acoustic version of their song "Walk On" for an upcoming HBO film. He recently won the Best Music Award from the International Documentary Association (IDA) for his score for the film, Better This World. For further information, Paul's website is: www.paulbrill.com.

Daniel Raiffe, Co-Producer, is a graduate of Syracuse University where he received a BFA in film. He also attended a program at The Prague Film and Television Academy of Performing Arts with an emphasis on directing and cinematography. He is a native of Miami, Florida and moved to New York several years ago to begin his career in filmmaking where he associate produced the documentary film The Soprano State. Daniel was a production assistant for Throwdown with Bobby Flay and the Fox series Fringe and has produced commercial web videos.