"STRAWBERRIES: Ladies Of The Night" is a
brutally, realistic journey into the lives of crack and
heroin addicted prostitutes over the course of 4 years.
We've seen dozens of movies and videos about
prostitutes ,but the "Strawberry" is a prostitute most
are not aware of. These ladies live in downtown Los
Angeles's skid row, the secret city that's hidden away
from the rest of the world.
The area is often called LA's dirty little secret.

The "STRAWBERRY" is a prostitute unlike any you've
ever seen. Seldom will a Strawberry received money for sex.

The filmmaker has managed to photograph the disturbing
effects that heroin and crack  has on these cocaine
concubines and heroin harlots. In this documentary,
you will hear their stories and see their pain.




PRODUCTION NOTES:
 "Strawberries: Ladies of the night" started out as a
small 5  to 30 minute project for a class assignment
in Television 48, a production class at Los Angeles
City College.

Back In the Spring of 1996 when the project was first
produced, it was not intended to be a feature length
documentary but a small video assignment, made just to
get a passing grade for the class.
However, after photographing and interviewing several
Strawberries year after year,more and more the project
has evolved into what is now a feature length
production.

After 1 semester of photographing and editing
"Strawberries" at Los Angeles City College, Sierra
purchased a used video camera of her own
and decided to produce the project independently.
Armed with a video camera in one hand and a butcher
knife in the other hand, Sierra set out to videotape
and interview more prostitutes and to
further explore the subculture. Sierra solely funded
the project with her own money.


Most of the time Sierra went downtown alone, being a
female on the streets of  downtown skid row at night
in an area infested with heroine junkies,crack fiens
and dope dealers was very dangerous and a little bit
crazy. To a dope fien, a video camera is worth
ALOT. Not to mention,the area is predominately
male,Sierra had to "watch her back" and not to let her
guard now. There was always the threat of
being violently attacked or followed.

This project was a very dangerous project to do,
sometimes Sierra had to dressed as a homeless person
and hide her video camera in a grocery cart in order
to get candid video shots. "Being out there all alone
was very scary at times,"  Sierra said.


Sierra spent many cold nights camped out  on the
streets photographing and interviewing  over 20
women(only 13 are in featured) All from different
racial background and ages.