Lizzie Borden’s groundbreaking film “Working Girls” is coming back to theaters. The project, detailing the lives of sex workers, approaches the topic with a seldom-seen motivation towards removing stigmas. It was revolutionary at the time of release, garnering attention from audiences as well as a 1987 Sundance Film Festival Special Grand Jury Prize.
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‘Girls’ conscious inspection of characters helps set apart the film’s structure. Director and writer Borden took an approach that challenges the male gaze. Instead of looking towards the normal perceptions of nudity and sexuality, she led the viewer towards another perspective. “The audience’s gaze thus becomes aligned with Molly’s and not those of her clients or anyone else who might objectify her,” Borden said. “You don’t necessarily see exactly what she would see, but you see what you see, the way she would feel it.”
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The upcoming release of ‘Girls’ features a new 4K restoration. Originally shot on Super 16mm, the update introduces audiences to the clearest picture — without losing the ambiance of its original 35mm showings. In addition, fans of Spike Lee will be interested to know that Borden used the same camera Lee rented for his film “She’s Gotta Have It.”
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The film’s official synopsis:
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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 the 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 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.
Louise Smith, Ellen McElduff, Amanda Goodwin, Marusia Zach, Janne Peters, and Helen Nicholas star in “Working Girls.” Additionally, “Working Girls” comes to the Criterion Collection on July 13, so if you’re not lucky enough to catch it in theaters, you can at least watch this restored 4K transfer at home relatively soon. The film’s new restoration premieres June 18th at New York’s IFC Center via Janus Films. It will be available nationwide at a later time. Watch the trailer below.