Valerie Kontakos’ new documentary, “Queen of the Deuce,” celebrates the wild life of Chelly Wilson, a colorful and fiery character who thrived in the midst of a heavily dominated milieu, run a porn empire and hosted a rotating cast of guests and supplicants at her apartment above one of her theaters, the Eros, located on what would become one of the neighborhood’s sleaziest blocks — the east side of Eighth Avenue between 45th and 46th Streets. A Greek-Jewish immigrant born in 1908 in Thessaloniki, Greece, Wilson fled the Holocaust and came to New York in 1939. By the mid-1960s, she was one of the reigning porn movie magnates of Times Square, running five theaters along Eighth Avenue during the so-called Golden Age of Porn.
Angelo’s Rallis In his new documentary «Mighty Afrin: In the Time of Floods» which premieres and competes at the 25th Doc Salonica Festival, follows for five years the life of 12 year old orphan Afrin from Bangladesh who faces the harsh reality of being a climate refugee living and growing up on her own having to live off garbage and work in clothes factories to make a living .
Listen to this episodfe of “Infinitely Curious” with Katerina Batzaki, to listen to two extraordinary stories about how these two female figures in two different corners of the world and at different times in history become survivors and life coaches each in their own way. The two documentaries will be screened at the 25th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival from the 2-12 March 2023. Aggelos Rallis’ “Mighty Afrin: In the Time of Floods» will have its first world premiere on the 7th of March at Olympian Theatre in Thessaloniki at 8.15 in the evening. And Valerie Kontakos’ “Queen of Deuce” premieres in Europe for the first time at the 25th Thessaloniki doc festival (10/3 @19:30 & 11/3@12:30).