In Lizzie Borden’s second great film of the ’80s, she looks at sex work through the lens of labor, free of judgement and full of compassion—it’s a viewpoint we still don’t see in a society that stigmatizes the profession and its workers, and an entertainment industry that uses their experience in the name of cheap sensationalism.

Borden’s richly detailed film was inspired by the experiences of sex workers whom she met during her five-year shoot for 1983’s Born in Flames. The film follows Molly (Louise Smith), a photographer by trade, as she goes through her working day, navigating a steady stream of clients while getting support from her warm and nurturing work family. Through it all, she seeks to stay grounded in a business where the personal and the professional dissolve into each other all too easily.

Given the thousands of times that prostitution has been dramatized on screen, it’s startling to see Borden boldly desensationalize the subject, offering an empathetic, humanizing, often humorous depiction of women for whom this work is just another day at the office. ~SM

The film is followed by a Q&A with Lizzie Borden, this year’s recipient of the VTIFF Award for Outstanding Contribution to American Cinema, sponsored by CSE Holding Co.