Sook-Yin Lee in the Q studio in Toronto.
The multi-hyphenate Canadian filmmaker sits down with Q’s Tom Power to discuss her new movie, Paying For It, based on Chester Brown’s 2011 graphic memoir of the same name.Sook-Yin Lee: Why she adapted her ex’s memoir about paying for sexFirstly, the movie is autofictional, drawing from Lee's own memories, but it's also an adaptation of her ex-boyfriend's book of the same name.
As a young person in Vancouver, she says many of her friends were renegotiating their romantic relationships beyond a monogamous arrangement. When she landed the gig at MuchMusic and moved to Toronto, she started meeting interesting new people and "developing crushes." But her introverted boyfriend was on a different trajectory.In 1996, they opted to open up their relationship rather than break up. Lee began dating other people and Brown remained celibate for three years.
"The book is really myopically from his perspective," Lee says. "He had the wherewithal to treat the sex workers that he visited with respect, and he was an excellent tipper. Like he is an example of the best client you could be…. He also witnessed the lack of labour rights that sex workers have to contend with in their life."In the book's lengthy appendices, Brown advocates for the rights of sex workers and argues for the decriminalization of sex work.
"I wanted to tell a good story that was true and tender. I'm interested in relationships. I didn't want to bash people over the head with a politic. I wanted to be able to present questions and have people debate amongst themselves about what they think relationships constitute, if there's wiggle room in their own lives what they think of paying for sex.".
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