An arresting documentary about NYC's seedy underbelly and the aging Greek Jewish woman who once ran it

When someone speaks of the American Dream, the image is usually of a well-to-do white-collared individual returning to their picket-fenced home where a doting spouse tends to two pristine children. Not, heaven forbid, a chain-smoking elderly Greek Jewish immigrant holding court with mafia bosses in an apartment above a gay porn cinema.

Well, think again. This is our first sighting of Chelly Wilson, the taboo-shattering entrepreneur who first arrived in New York in 1939 with $5 in her pocket, but ended up owning six of the major adult entertainment cinemas in the city. Valerie Kontakos’ lovingly crafted documentary tracks Wilson's compelling ascent, with lesbian lovers in tow and a penchant for both money and cigarettes.

We’re given an insight into New York City’s seedy underbelly during the 60s and 70s, a forgotten time and place that's lamented today by one of Wilson's former underlings. There’s even a vignette of a street cleaner scrubbing the pavements of the notorious Times Square on 42nd Street (also known as the 'Deuce'), where Wilson made her name. The public appetite for – and eventual disgust at – hardcore pornography is charted and, by the 90s, sees Wilson focusing more on her restaurant business, as daughter Bondi becomes embroiled with the FBI.

The archive footage is intercut with playful cartoons and home videos, shaping a story that is told primarily through the eyes of Wilson's children and grandchildren. This skews the narrative slightly as her dealings with the mafia are brushed over, hinting at a darker side of the protagonist that is at odds with the charming, generous representation prominent throughout. Wilson's Jewish heritage is consigned to background ambience for the most part, perhaps a missed opportunity given it forms a key part of her background.

Born into a Sephardi Jewish family in Salonika (now Thessaloniki), Greece, in 1908, Wilson was forced into an arranged marriage, with her ferocious temperament at the forefront even then. Having escaped the clutches of unconsensual matrimony, she then avoided Auschwitz by boarding the last boat to America out of Greece before the onset of World War II. This first part of Wilson's story is a poignant and rare glimpse of the Greek perspective of the Holocaust.

Objective for the most part and slickly edited, Queen of the Deuce is a fascinating account of one woman's search for a new life in the Big Apple – a life interwoven with the rise of feminism, sexual revolution and gay pride. It may not fit the archetypal American Dream of old, but it's certainly one that we can all get on board with today.

By Tom McGhie

Queen of the Deuce is screening as part of the UK Jewish Film Festival online until Monday 27 November. Films are available to watch for 72 hours after purchase. ukjewishfilm.org

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