Scarlet Road

Documentary Spotlight
D: Catherine Scott

She hovers over his belly, smiling, then gently, almost imperceptibly, strokes his skin with her silken curtain of hair. Her hand guides his up and onto her, affording him the same pleasure, the affirming grace of human touch. Sex worker Rachel Wotton, who specializes in clients with disabilities, is on the job in New South Wales, where sex work was decriminalized, and this is her story. Director Catherine Scott lends a similarly deft and tender camera to the proceedings, not afraid to get in with close-ups, but perhaps not of what you think. While the film features two very intimate encounters, it never treads on the inappropriate or voyeuristic, instead capturing the subtle and everyday (“You can order in, like a pizza!”) and emotionally nuanced (“I finally feel like a real bloke again!”) with heightened sensitivity, offering the subtextual food for thought that for some, the world’s oldest profession might very well be less an occupation than an avocation.

Friday, March 16, 11am, Alamo Lamar

This article appears in March 16 • 2012.

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