#1087: BORDEN, Lizzie: Working Girls (1986)

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BORDEN, Lizzie (United States)
Working Girls (1986)
Spine #1087
Blu-ray


Sex work is portrayed with radical nonjudgment in Lizzie Borden's immersive, richly detailed look at the rhythms and rituals of society's most stigmatized profession. Inspired by the experiences of sex workers Borden met while making her underground feminist landmark Born in Flames, Working Girls reveals the textures of a day in the life of Molly (Louise Smith), a photographer working part-time in a Manhattan brothel, as she juggles a steady stream of clients, balances nurturing relationships with her coworkers with the demands of an ambitious madam, and above all fights to maintain her sense of self in a business in which the line between the personal and the professional is all too easily blurred. In viewing prostitution through the lens of labor, Borden boldly desensationalizes the subject, offering an empathetic, humanizing, often humorous depiction of women for whom this work is just another day at the office.

94 minutes
Color
Monaural
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2021
Director/Writers


Story by Lizzie Borden.
Screenplay by Borden and Sandra Kay.
Borden was 28 when she directed Working Girls.

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Forty-page booklet featuring an essay by author So Mayer and excerpts from a 1987 interview with Borden by film scholar Scott MacDonald.

Commentary

From 2007 featuring Borden, DP Judy Irola, and actor Goodwin.

Conversation 1

Between Borden and filmmaker Bette Gordon.

Conversation 2

Between actors Goodwin and Smith; producer Andi Gladstone, and assistant director Vicky Funari.

Conversation 3

With sex workers Antonia Crane, Daphne, Selena the Stripper, and Jo Weldon.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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