Julia is a 23 year old transsexual prostitute from Lithuania, working and, literally, living in the streets of Berlin. She is the protagonist of a documentary I am working on every time I have a little time and money to bring the project one step further.
I've started to work on the film two years ago, since then shooting about 20 hrs of DV and HDV material, and due to the fact that no one ever wanted to give a cent for the completion of the movie, it is now more or less becoming a long time study on the Berlin trannie street life, and the life of Julia in particular, in decline ...
Last year, I was asked to present a short version of the film at an exhibition at Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst in Berlin: SEXWORK.
25 minutes of the material were edited, waiting for the sound mix, Luis Miguélez had composed a thrilling soundtrack, and all I needed was one more little interview with Julia to complete the film.
But the night before I wanted to shoot the interview, Julia disappeared.
I started looking, but couldn't find her. I asked friends to help, etc.
We were searching for weeks, with no success.
In this situation we decided that the film should start with a VOICE OVER personal statement of my own for which I then asked Luis to write some extra music.
I may have thought about a bass line, some occasional guitar riff and a trumpet or something. But what Luis Miguélez and Bianca Fox came up with, really blew my mind.
When I first heard Lonely Julia, I had to leave the studio, crying.
I felt very honored that, when the album came out, of all the creative movie makers Luis is working with, it was me he asked to shoot the Lonely Julia video.
J. Jackie Baier, May 17, 2007
P.S. A few days ago I went to the Frobenstrasse the particular place in Berlin where trannie whores walk the streets. I was looking for Julia to tell her about the video, but found her missing again...
VOICE OVER FROM THE FILM JULIA
Julia is missing again.
Yesterday I visited her in the porn cinema, in where she has crashed for the last six months. We sat in the common room of the hookers, which doubled as Julia's sleeping room; a smoky, run down basement without any daylight, roughly the size of a prison cell. A couch, a counter, a coffee machine and a TV, out of which at full volume some cheap television series blared. This room is what her life is to a large extent limited to. Actually she left it only when the Mamsell called her for a client.
I saw her for the very first time, while she still worked at a bar in Wilmersdorf. For some time we both worked there, tempting clients with booze, offers of sex, whatever would bring money. I soon left the business again. The mistress was simply not convinced that I was a good hooker and actually she was right - even though I learned a lot by watching Julia.
Julia was soon to be out as well. She didn't really get along in that joint. The mistress had some kind of style, while Julia just had her style. It just couldn't go well.
Afterward they said that Julia was always drunk. But this couldn't be a reason to kick her out, since if she would have always been drunk, it probably would have worked out with the old bitch. After all, she was permanently drunk as well.
About a year ago I met Julia again. I was riding on a bus to Schöneberg, she was at the corner of Froben-and Bülow - hustling at the trannys patch.
We drank a couple of beers at Murats kiosk and she asked at some point if I wouldn't want to shoot some pictures of her again. - I didn't have my proper camera on me, just my mobile.
I did some shots and once I left, promised to return.
As I returned again two nights later, this time with my camera, Julia had disappeared. At the kiosk it was said that she was dead, probably somewhere frozen to death.
Back then she reappeared.
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