New short film shows the brutal reality of sex work in Brazil: Priscila's story

New short film shows the brutal reality of sex work in Brazil: Priscila's story

“Making this short film was my way of screaming, and yet it was therapeutic at the same time,” says Priscila Fróes, trans rights activist and film maker based in Glasgow.

The upcoming film screening of ‘Bianca’, as a part of the Scottish Queer International Film Festival reflects on Priscila’s lived experiences as a trans sex worker on the streets of Brazil, across the cities of Porto Alegre where she was born, and Rio de Janeiro, before she moved to Glasgow in 2021.    

Her story highlights the systemic corruption engrained in the Brazilian police force, and the dangerous reality of being a sex worker in the country. 

Despite the law passed in 2019 by Brazil’s Supreme Court, which made homophobia and transphobia crimes equivalent to racism, Brazil remains one of the most dangerous places for LGBTQ+ people. 

“The government paints Brazil as a safe country because of our legal framework, but it doesn't account for the lived experience,” she explains.

“The culture of the country is sexist, and it's very masculine, so the violence against trans people and women is insane. 

Priscila, who holds a degree in visual arts, went into sex work in 2013 after suffering from discrimination in the job market. As a result of Priscilla's own experiences in the job market, TransENEM, an educational project was set up in Porto Alegre in early 2016 by Priscilla and various other volunteers who came from a range of different backgrounds from teachers, to social workers, to researchers. The project, which continues to run today, helps trans people complete their high school diploma and go to university.

“I was working on the streets to make a living, and at the same time I was working [as a volunteer] with trans people in the hopes of improving their lives.”

“Back then I was able to speak for others but when it came to myself I wasn’t able to.” 

“I keep thinking back to how violent it was,” she continues.

From Porto Alegre to Rio de Janeiro: The realities of sex work in Brazil 

Priscila recounts just a few of the many dangerous experiences she went through, from jumping out of a moving car to escape a potential abduction, physical violence and assault, girls being raped by the Braziliian police, to intimidation techniques, and even murder.   

“Andrea was a girl that worked in the block next to mine in Porto Alegre,” she begins as she explains one of these memories.

“I remember it was late at night, I was ending my shift and my colleague was coming for hers because we used to share the same block.

“The next morning I woke up, and I saw the news that Andrea was shot because of criminal organisation wars. 

“She was innocent, but for them to send a message they shot her.

“It was really scary.”

In 2019, after six years working on the streets of Porto Alegre, Priscila had to flee to Rio de Janeiro, caught up in police corruption.

At this time she would film short videos of what it was like to work on the streets, and through these videos she gathered evidence of the corruption and violence that took place. The videos included the criminals charging ‘protection’ tolls to sex workers to grant them access to work on the streets, as well as the locations where they would hide their drugs.

She took the videos to the police station to file a report. Priscilla gathered this evidence with the aim of trying to make Porto Alegre a safer place for sex workers, as at this time violence was on rise with girls being beaten if they refused to pay the toll.

A few days later she received a message from a colleague saying that the ‘guys’, as in the criminals the girls would pay for ‘protection’, wanted to talk about the videos she had sent to the police.

“I knew then that my videos had been leaked, and I knew it was the police, because only the police and I had access to them, that was when I knew something was wrong. 

“So I ran. I ran to Rio de Janeiro the next morning.”

Upon her arrival in Rio she experienced much of the same, and after trying to get a different job she was unsuccessful and ended up going back into sex work. 

In Rio however the criminals who offered ‘protection’ never showed up to take her payment, until one day a taxi stopped her. 

“It was him, he started yelling at me with a gun and trying to make me get in the car, I had to try and calm him down so I didn’t aggravate him more. 

“I was so afraid. This was only a few weeks after I had run away from Porto Alegre, and I remember thinking this was my end.”

Scotland: A way out

In 2021, Priscila, aged 32 at the time moved to Glasgow after being accepted onto the Chevening Scholarship, which is the UK government's international scholarship and fellowship programme. The scheme brings together people with ideas to create positive change, giving them a space to study at a UK university of their choice.

“I remember, I was writing my application essays on my cell phone while I was working on the street waiting for clients,” she recounts, highlighting the duality between the two worlds.

Safety and LGBTQ+ inclusivity was at the core of her university choice, yearning for somewhere that she didn’t have to turn to sex work to survive. 

“There is no more anxiety when I leave the house, it feels safe,” she says, describing her life now in Glasgow. 

She’s aware that her personal experience in the UK is an individual experience, and that it does not speak for all trans people.

“I think especially at the moment, with trans people being in the spotlight for no reason, having this space and all the community groups like we do in Glasgow is really important,” she adds.

The film 

Her short film, Bianca, which was created through the filmmaking workshops for Trans and Non-Binary People within The Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF) is part of the screening session called Reframed, which included multiple short films and Q&A’s with the directors. The session is taking place November 1st at The Social Hub, Glasgow, in meeting room 3 at 12.30pm. 

“’I’m only able to face what happened to me now, so this film is a way of putting what I experienced forward, it's a way of expressing myself and understanding my memories,” she says.

The videos within the film were taken in both Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro from the clips she filmed while working on the street, as well some shots from Glasgow used as filler clips. The film pulls together a memory, something that happened to her - a part of her life.

Her face lights up as she explains the process of putting the film together, "It's almost never ending,” she says, "that's what I love about the creative process, I can be bold, I can always add more.”

“I think art has this power to bring change,” she continues

“Art has a purpose, it's not just art for art, it's art for society, and my film talks about this, it's a lived experience.”

The Scottish Queer International Film Festival runs from October 27th to November 1st, access the brochure here: https://www.sqiff.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/SQIFF_brochure_2025.pdf