TICKETS $15

Doors 3:30 p.m.; Event at 4 p.m.

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THE EXPERIENCE

The unbelievable true story of Chelly Wilson, who escaped the Holocaust and built a porn cinema empire in New York City in the 1970s. Chelly was a Greek-born, Christmas-celebrating, Jewish grandma, who married men but was openly gay. This documentary charts her unlikely rise to wealth as a shrewd businesswoman on “The Deuce,” aka New York’s infamous 42nd Street. Before the film the Gents of Chaos will play some retro-groove musical morsels.

ON SCREEN: Queen of the Deuce

2022. Directed by Valerie Kontakos. Runtime: 78 minutes. Not Rated.

From the late ’60s to the mid ’80s, in the notorious Times Square area known as the Deuce, 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.

With a cigarette in hand and bags of money stashed in the corner, Chelly regularly held court in her bunker-like apartment above the legendary 8th Avenue all-male Adonis Theatre, summoning a lively cabal of associates, entertainers, and fellow poker players, with her female lovers always hovering and grandchildren often underfoot. Yet few in her circle knew of the risks she took to get there.

Queen of the Deuce 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.

“A fascinating, colorful portrait… a rich mix of personal testimony, archive material and animation.” – Screen Daily

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Valerie Kontakos | Director, writer, producer

A native New Yorker, Valerie Kontakos has been living between Athens and New York since 2003. After graduating from New York University, she worked as a sound editor for the Maysles brothers, Deborah Dickson, Anita Thacher and others. In 1989 she directed her first feature documentary A Quality of Light. 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. Her second feature, Who’s on First? (2006), aired in the US, Greece, Finland and South Korea. Her third feature, Mana (2015), went viral during the 2018 wildfires in Greece, helping the nuns featured in the film rebuild their orphanage. 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. She has been on the Board of Directors of the Greek Cinematheque for over a decade. Queen of the Deuce is her fourth feature.

ON STAGE

The Gents of Chaos are a Portland, Oregon based band specializing in Spy-Fi, Surf and cool Retro-groove musical morsels.