Press release

 

‘Thank You for Supporting the Arts’

AVAILABLE ON DVD & SVOD ON 

OCTOBER 19, 2021

(VIMEO WITH ADDITIONAL PLATFORMS TO FOLLOW)

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Festival Selections & Awards

Audience Award & Best Producer – DOC LA Film Festival, Special Jury Award Documentary Feature – Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival, Most Transformative Film Award – Crossroads Film Festival, Official Selection – NYCIFF, Official Selection – DUMBO Film Festival

"Looking at it in the context of that, some of them are kind of like working more than just the stripping. They’ll work their way into your life as well…You can make pretty much anything into an art form, I think." -- Gus Van Sant

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“Thank You for Supporting the Arts takes its title from what Viva says to her customers, and does something that shouldn’t be subversive, but is: It asks a sex worker to define her work for herself, and listens when she does.” – Mercury News

 

“Stripping isn't just a job for her. She embraces the radical feminist notion that making money with your body is an empowering act, that sex can and should be a political statement.” – The Oregonian

Los Angeles, CA (October 11, 2021) — Cinema Libre Studio is thrilled to announce the home entertainment release of ‘THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE ARTS,’ coming to DVD, Blu-ray and VOD (Vimeo) on October 19, 2021. This provocative feature length documentary features Ivy League educated writer, singer, mother, breast cancer survivor, and stripper, Viva Las Vegas, who advocates for people who use their bodies for survival, while navigating the limitations of living at the edge of societal acceptance. The film also features appearances by acclaimed filmmaker, Gus Van Sant, Kevin Shapen of The Spider Babies, Jedediah Aaker of Portlandia, and Vicki Keller, owner of Mary’s Club in Portland, Oregon along with performances by Portland acts Blaze and Soren High.

Viva (Liv Osthus), a stripper who has worked for 20 years, surviving heartbreak, breast cancer, and mental illness, interprets stripping as an art form. “Strippers are artists. I believe what happens in a strip bar is the best, most potent art the late 21st century has to offer.” Viva is also known as Coco Cobra, Portland's most fearsome punk-band frontwoman, and Lila Hamilton, the persona she took on when she lobbied city hall for greater protections for sex workers.

The 42-year-old Williams College graduate, who speaks fluent German and French, is a preacher, just like her Lutheran minister father. Unlike her father, Viva preaches from the pulpit of a Portland strip club called Mary’s, where people throw bills on stage while she dances naked preaching the gospel of the arts. “Hers is a gospel not of the heavens but of the real hard earth — punitory, exhausting, a little hopeless, still worth moving through,” says journalist Monica Uszerowicz from Hyperallergic.com.

"It's revolutionary still -- a woman being naked on stage for herself, for her living," Osthus says. Viva is a Portland underground icon and activist with a dedicated following who is also a local leader in a lifelong battle against cultural expectations. Gus Van Sant, who is featured in the film, often takes people from out of town to Mary’s, once bringing along Sean Penn, who was charmed by the talented Viva and her willingness to discuss her memoir and her poetry.

Viva learned from her minister father how to connect with people. "When you're a pastor you belong to everybody," she says. "You're helping everybody. You're everybody's dad. I see my dancing kind of the same way. I need to take care of a lot of people."

Viva celebrates the female form, advocates for the empowerment of all women, and commands respect for those whose careers depend on their bodies. “Once I had cancer, all bets were off. I was so grateful to come back to the stage and I will dance as long as they’re willing to have me. And stripping if you, if you stay healthy and keep your head in the game, you have more to offer every year. I think the body changing is so interesting, and if anything, I, I am more excited about dancing into the future than I was before.”

A shocking breast cancer diagnosis and double mastectomy did not dampen her missionary zeal, and Viva continues to dance, scars and all, reminding the rest of us that art is everywhere and art is everything. "Her gift is what she gives back to the audience," says director Carolann Stoney. "Her gift is the connection she makes."

‘Thank You For Supporting the Arts’ is directed by Carolann Stoney, is an award-winning film director, producer, and writer, known for Aalto's Library (2016, Official Selection Bend Film Festival), Third Angle (2014), Full Letter Jacket (2014) and Women in the Dirt: Landscape Architects Shaping Our World (2011) and W. Alexander Jones, a director, photographer, and the Creative Director of Blacktop Films.

The film is produced by Jessica Daugherty, an award-winning producer and director of documentary and experimental films and Cintamani Calise is a Freelance Producer, Associate Producer & Production Coordinator in commercial and film.

‘Thank You for Supporting the Arts’ has a running time of 74 minutes, is not rated and is heading to DVD and VOD (Vimeo) on October 19, 2021.

 

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE ARTS DVD

Street Date:              October 19, 2021  

Genre:                        Documentary

UPC:                         8813941291229

Run Time:                  74 Minutes

Rating                       Not rated

SRP:                         $19.95

Format:                     16 x 9 Widescreen

 

FACEBOOK.COM/THANKYOUFORSUPPORTINGTHEARTS

Website: www.thankyouforsupportingthearts.com

For more information, please contact:

 

Marketing

Beth Portello | Cinema Libre Studio

bportello@cinemalibrestudio.com

Outreach and Public Relations

Jamie Coker Robertson | JCR Public Relations

jcrpublicrelations@gmail.com

ABOUT CAROLANN STONEY, DIRECTOR & EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Carolann Stoney is an award-winning film director, producer, and writer, known for Aalto's Library (2016, Official Selection Bend Film Festival), Third Angle (2014), Full Letter Jacket (2014) and Women in the Dirt: Landscape Architects Shaping Our World (2011).

ABOUT W. ALEXANDER JONES, DIRECTOR

W. Alexander Jones is a director, photographer, and the Creative Director of Blacktop Films. He is known for the short films Full Letter Jacket (2014) and Aalto's Library (2016) which was an official selection at the Bend Film Festival in 2016.  Thank You for Supporting the Arts is his first feature length documentary.

ABOUT CINEMA LIBRE STUDIO:

Cinema Libre Studio is a mini-studio known for producing and distributing high-quality feature films and social impact documentaries. Headquartered in the Los Angeles area, the team has released over 200 films including: THE END OF POVERTY?, Oliver Stone’s SOUTH OF THE BORDER, CAN’T STAND LOSING YOU: SURVIVING THE POLICE and Stéphane Brizé's AT WAR, an official selection to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. The company is currently in release with “TELL MY STORY For more information and updates, please visit: www.cinemalibrestudio.com | Facebook | Twitter

 
 

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