"The Resort," A Short Film About Sex Tourism In Tobago

YouTube

Issa Rae is known for her hit series Awkward Black Girl and New York Times best-selling memoir, The Misadventures Of Awkward Black Girl. And although the creative producer is preparing for her new HBO show Insecure, she’s also paying it forward by allowing other filmmakers to release short films every Sunday on her YouTube page. The most recent short to debut on Rae’s channel was directed by Shadae Lamar Smith and based on sex tourism in Tobago.

Titled, The Resort, the comprised vignettes are centered on how Tobagonians survive despite the lack of resources in their country and the service industry’s low wages. In it, Europeans are seen taking advantage of male natives by soliciting them for sex or drugs. Whereas local women are expected to work more than twelve-hour shifts and even indulge in sexual relationships with supervisors to gain more work perks.

Viewers will also get a glimpse into how whites relate to and perceive Black men. For example, a European husband tells a male Tobagonian not to shower before having sex with his wife. “My wife loves how you people smell,” he explains while he sets up his camera on a tripod to record the local and his wife having sex. See how the local responds to the husband, below. What do you think about this project?