Reason's New Documentary on Backpage.com Is Streaming Exclusively on CiVL
The film ties together years of reporting on a legal saga with broad implications for both free speech and sex work.
On Wednesday, August 28, 2024, the veteran newspaper editor Michael Lacey walked into a federal courthouse in Phoenix to face sentencing for one count of international concealment money laundering. Federal prosecutors were seeking 20 years, which would have kept Lacey locked up until he was 96. It was an unfortunate milestone in an eight-year legal saga with broad implications both for free speech and for the sex work industry.
Lacey's sentencing is the final scene in Classified: The War on Backpage, a new 42-minute documentary film produced by Reason, directed by Paul Detrick, and reported by Elizabeth Nolan Brown, now streaming exclusively at CiVL. It ties together Brown's years of reporting on the government's case against the online classified site—a legal crusade led in its early stages by former California Attorney General Kamala Harris.
We're thrilled to be premiering this film on CiVL, a new nonprofit streaming platform whose mission is to promote freedom and human respect by presenting films, shows, and debates. It's exciting to see Classified become part of CiVL's curated library of thought-provoking films, and we see this partnership as a way to build new audiences for our marquee documentaries.
CiVL is free to join, and you can use your login to sign in with apps (iOS, Android, Roku, Fire TV) or to watch on the web. (Download CiVL's apps here.) You can also catch other Reason shows, documentaries, comedy pieces, and Soho Forum debates while you're there.
You can watch Classified: The War On Backpage here.
The film chronicles Backpage's legal troubles, starting with accusations by Harris and others that it facilitated sex trafficking, despite evidence of its efforts to assist the FBI and local police in investigations. It recounts the story of how Lacey and his business partner, James Larkin, built an alt-weekly newspaper empire and made powerful enemies along the way. Next came Larkin's tragic suicide, Lacey's ongoing legal battles, and an FBI raid on his property.
"We're thrilled to be releasing Reason's latest film, which tells the Backpage story in such a responsible way," says Justin Arman, the founder and executive director of CiVL. "How much freedom are we willing to sacrifice for perceived safety? CiVL hopes to inspire our viewers to reflect on this question while watching Classified."
Another character in the film is the writer and comedian Kaytlin Bailey, who's the founder and executive director of Old Pros, a nonprofit with the mission of changing the status of sex workers in society. There are clips in the film of Bailey's one-woman show, Wh*re's Eye View, which Playbill has described as "like a TED talk spun through a cloud of poppers."
Coincidentally, Wh*re's Eye View is about to begin a New York City run, from October 10–27. Get your tickets here. For more on Bailey's work, watch her 2022 interview with Reason's Nick Gillespie.
And join CiVL to watch Classified and other terrific films. Here's the trailer:
