As conflicting schedules and commitments push a sex worker and her girlfriend further apart, an unexpected intimacy with a client pushes her toward a moment of crisis.
THE FACE IN THE MIRROR
Every relationship in our lives, from the most intimate to the most trivial, creates a different version of ourselves—infinite combinations of who we want to be and who we have to be, to whom. Society attempts to help us define which of these versions of us are more authentic, more “true to ourselves,” and thus which of our relationships are more meaningful or rewarding.
For people like Violet, identity is a difficult and volatile compromise. She is a student of psychology by day and a sex worker by night. She is a queer woman who sleeps primarily with men. She lives with a girlfriend who probably knows her more intimately than anyone else, and yet Violet finds it increasingly easier to talk to an older client who knows next to nothing about her. And of course, she is a woman of color. She is a collection of selves society is uncomfortable reconciling, a person who exists in the crosshairs of people’s ignorance.
This movie is an attempt to present the life of someone like Violet free from the judgmental gaze of such people. To the camera at least, her existence is not exotic, scandalous, titillating, or immoral. She’s not being pressured to advocate for her people, either. She’s just trying to live. Maybe we could all benefit from seeing our selves—all of them—in her.
