Filmmaker Statement

After graduating college, I had a friend who started started arranging dinner dates between wealthy finance men and young women for money in NYC. This was my first encounter with the concept of sugar babies, though far from the last. I continued to hear stories over the years, often from unexpected sources. I ended up interviewing dozens of sex workers and sugar babies as research and audio elements for what would become SIDE HUSTLE. I have a decade of experience connecting with people from all walks of life through my background in street casting. I’ve interviewed sex workers in the past — scouting at porn conventions and strip clubs for projects like EUPHORIA — and I approached each interviewee for this project with the same care and sensitivity as I do when scouting. I view casting as storytelling; as a result, my style lands somewhere in the hyperreal, fueled by curiosity, trust, intuition, and the desire to get at something honest about the world I’m exploring.