‘Queen of the Deuce’ Director on Paying Homage to Chelly Wilson, the Feminist Who Built a Porn Empire

variety.com:

Tara Karajica In Valerie Kontakos’ fourth feature, “The Queen of the Deuce,” the New York native, Athens-based director and NYU Tisch School of the Arts alumna, gives an alternate take on cultural history as seen through the eyes of Chelly Wilson, queen of the porno industry in 1970s New York and unconventional feminist, against the backdrop of the rise of feminism, the sexual revolution and gay pride.

The film plays in the International Competition at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival. Kontakos says she knew Wilson through her mother, whose brother was a producer of Greek films who, in the ‘60s and ‘70s, would provide Wilson with Greek family films for her Sunday programs. “When I turned 15 or 16, I said to [my mother]: ‘Now that I can work part time, I am going to get myself a job because I want to start making my own money and I want to be independent.’ And, because when she went to New York, my uncle had asked her to go see Chelly to see what kind of operation she was running, they had become friends.

So, I guess my mom told her that I was interested in working. She was then still showing Greek films on Sundays. So, I worked selling tickets there at the box office on Sundays, when they showed the Greek films, and the rest of the week they would show porn.” She adds: “I was fascinated by her at the age of 16, seeing her interact with people in the business.

I think she always stayed with me since then because I admired her so much at that age, when I felt like: ‘I’m gonna be independent and I’m gonna be strong and I’m gonna do it.’ And, here she was, this personification of all these things that I wanted to be as a woman.” Beyond her profession as the owner of several porn theaters in the infamous Time