CBC Gem is airing a short documentary titled Last Night at the Strip Club. The auto-ethnography examines the impact the COVID-19 had on sex worker Andrea Werhun. Werhun was employed as an exotic dancer in the spring of 2020 and had to make some significant changes to her work due to COVID.
There are a couple of reasons to spend 12 minutes on this film. First, first-person discussions of sex work are rare enough that they're worthwhile to watch. They offer a useful counterpoint to more academic work. Stripping, in particular, is something of which I haven't seen a lot of first-person Canadian accounts.
Second, Werhun is quite articulate about her experiences. The way she adapted to COVID shows a lot of savvy. The documentary predates her recent book Modern Whore: A Memoir, which I haven't yet read (and is apparently to be a film shortly).
-- Bob Barnetson
