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 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.

1986
93 minutes
Color
1.66:1
English

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Lizzie Borden, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary from 2007 featuring Borden, director of photography Judy Irola, and actor Amanda Goodwin
New conversation between Borden and filmmaker Bette Gordon
New conversation with Goodwin, actor Louise Smith, producer Andi Gladstone, and assistant director Vicky Funari
New conversation with sex workers Antonia Crane, Daphne, Selena the Stripper, and Jo Weldon
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by author So Mayer and excerpts from a 1987 interview with Borden by film critic Scott MacDonald