The eccentric, Greek-born Chelly Wilson built a porn cinema empire and a reputation as one of the most savvy and charismatic figures on the scene. The film reveals Chelly’s origins as a taboo-breaking entrepreneur and traces the fraught events that lead to her departure from Europe on the eve of war, and the unconventional trajectories of her American business ventures and personal life. With the rise of feminism, the sexual revolution and gay pride in frame, Queen of the Deuce is an alternate take on cultural history as seen through Chelly Wilson’s empowering story of survival.
Greece, Canada, 2022, 73 min., English, Greek with English and Bulgarian subtitles
Script: Valerie Kontakos, Despina Pavlaki
Director: Valerie Kontakos
Cinematography: Valerie Kontakos, Despina Pavlaki
Music: Valerie Kontakos, Despina Pavlaki
Production: Exile Films – Despina Pavlaki, Storyline Entertainment – Ed Barreveld
Director’s Biography:
A native New Yorker, Valerie Kontakos has been living between Athens and New York since 2003. In 1989 she directed her first feature documentary A Quality of Light. Her next films are Who’s on First? (2006), Mana (2015). In 1994 she became the deputy director of the Hellenic Foundation in NYC, where she started the NYC Greek Film Festival and curated a monthly program for the American Museum of the Moving Image. She founded the production company Exile Films in Athens in 2007 and has been operating the non-profit Exile Room, focusing on social outreach through documentary, since 2009.