One of my photographs that always provoked discomfort is the one with Juanita, a 70-year-old sex worker lying on bed with a client in a hotel room. People ask me if I staged it, if I made it up. They claimed that women that age do not work as prostitutes. I noticed that seeing a woman’s sexuality annoyed them. I kept this photo on the wall of my studio so one day I could give it a voice. During the several years that I did this project in La Merced–downtown Mexico City–I always felt that the voice of the women was missing; since my first exhibition I wrote their voices, I played audios with their voices in the installations. This was until I started filming a movie in February 2012 and finished it in 2015.
Maya Goded refuses to shy away from the painful aspects of these women’s jobs—the abuse, fear, and discontent that come from years of selling intimacy. She leads us into their histories, families, superstitions, and hopes, while allowing the camera to hone in on the contours of their well-worn bodies—beautiful and real. Plaza de la Soledad is a sumptuous visual celebration and a refreshingly honest exploration of physical and emotional self-determination against difficult odds.
Sundance Film Festival
A Monstro Films Production
In co-production with:
Alebrije Producciones and
La Sombra del Guayabo
Directed by
Maya Goded
Produced by
Martha Sosa
Producers
Eamon O’Farrill and Mónica Lozano
Cinematography
Maya Goded
Edited by
Valentina Leduc
Sound
Miguel Hernández
Original Score
Jacobo Lieberman and Leonardo Heiblum
Sound Design
Lena Esquenazi
Co-Producer
Carlos Hagerman
Line Producers
Maya Goded
Associate Producers
Iris Lammertsma and Boudewijn Koole
Associate Producer
Layda Negrete
Post-Producer
Max Blasquez
Main Cast
Carmen, Lety, Raquel, Esther, Carlos, Ángeles
© TODOS LOS DERECHOS RESERVADOS MONSTRO FILMS, S.A. DE C.V.