Director Cameron Yates spent five years
shooting with Jeanette Maier, starting with the FBI bust that
ended her career as a sex peddler to New Orleans government and
corporate elite, a trade she learned from her formidable mother Tommie
and used to employ her daughter Monica. Far more confining than any
social stigma of being convicted of multiple felony sex crimes (locals
regard Maier as a charming addition to New Orleans's
seedy mythology) is the legal and employment ramifications. She goes to
nursing school but finds out convicted felons can't be certified, she
turns her efforts to the seemingly less puritanical world of real estate
development only have the same door slammed in her face. Though
extraordinarily savvy and almost pathologically like-able, Maier
is left to dine out on her notoriety making public appearances where
she is often met with ridicule and abuse. Paradoxically, the brothel's
client list is kept under airtight security by Federal and state
officials.
Throughout this five year
period Maier is also constantly attempting to
heal her troubled family. Jeanette, Tommie and Monica have all been
molested or abandoned by the men in their early lives, but each woman's
decision to enter sex work is presented as equally being the result of
something intrinsic to their personalities as well as one of the
unfortunate lasting legacies of abuse. While the Maiers women
may be victims of poverty and abuse, the actual work of prostitution
seems to have generally served them positively. And when forced out of
the sex trade via Federal prosecution, they each maintain their wits and
are able to maintain relatively normal lives (Monica is a member of the
PTA, even). Jeanette's two sons however struggle with drugs and are in
and out of prison, their bad fortune poses the toughest rebuke to
conventional wisdom that all sex workers are hapless victims and their
troubles remains the greatest source of stress and grief in Jeanette's
life.
In one scene, Yates shows
Jeanette's reaction to her oldest son nearly overdosing on heroin the
day before meeting (and presumably, a drug test) with his parole
officer. She flies into action, reviving him, cleaning up needles,
convincing a snooping landlord to back off and calming his angry
girlfriend. It's enabling, unhealthy behavior certainly honed over the
course of years of cleaning up other people's bad behavior, but there's
also a talent for this kind of crisis management that we see woefully
lacking in the local government structure when a few months later
Hurricane Katrina hits. Jeanette is out in full force handing out
pallets of bottled water, instant mashed potatoes and her business card
to men who may be looking for.. a little relief.
Canal Street Madam lends itself well to a provocative 200
word plot synopsis that might turn a lot of filmgoers
away. But while Yates doesn't avoid the grimmer details of Jeanette's
life and choices, The Canal Street Madam is a thoughtful examination of
some of the greater complexities of poverty and sex work as well as the
glaring hypocrisies of the justice system.
Canal Street Madam screened as part of the HotDocs 2010 program.
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