My Body Goes to Work – dir Fernanda Molina
Final Rating: 4/5
In My Body Goes to Work, directed by Fernanda Molina, Neveah May stars in and executive produces a short film focused on her work. Her life is dedicated to women’s bodies, including her own, and the empowerment to be found there. Beyond a simple message of feminine empowerment, Neveah focuses on the joy of her labor working with clients both as a sex worker, dancing and full-service, and as a doula at a birthing center.
Neveah spends her days working as a doula, something she explains she was drawn to as someone who specifically wanted to avoid the process of giving birth herself. Her time spent with clients preparing for and during labor and delivery feels rewarding and exhausting, and she compares it to her work with (mostly) men as a sex worker. Both she finds as emotionally taxing as they are physically exhausting. Both jobs are, on the surface, about women’s bodies, but often the job ultimately deals with emotional turmoil which she is able to help her clients work through to find some pleasure or joy.
Her life is devoted to connecting with people and helping them through tumultuous and intimate periods of their lives, and this is discussed, albeit briefly, without much criticism. The film is devoted to normalizing sex work, and its brief runtime lacks some depth and critical inspection, which may have enriched the film. There is no effort to sanitize sex work, which is painted as potentially dangerous, but the film fails to expound upon the potential negative effects of the emotional element which Neveah brings up.
This is the only aspect really left to the audience, as the short is very explanatory in nature. More a human interest piece than anything else, very little is up to the audience to interpret. Most of what the film tells us, it does so via voiceover and interviews, with some slice of life moments. Nothing is left between the lines; there is very little to be inferred.
Destigmatization of her work is clearly the priority, and on that point the film is certainly successful. It manages to do this without suggesting the work is entirely safe, and emphasizes that Neveah’s relative safety is partially dependent on limited local legal measures which should be broadened to protect more people in the industry.
The film does not manage to dig into the possible roots or implications of the emotional nature of her work. Why are women’s bodies and minds the center of so much emotional tumult for her clients? Coming in at just 12 minutes, the film can be forgiven for leaving this by the wayside. The viewer may be left understanding that sex work has much in common with social work, and one can hope this encourages further investigation and discussion to dig a little deeper into the social conditions contributing to this and the effect it may have on even the safest sex workers and medical personnel.
0004NGEL – dir Eli Jean Tahchi
Final Rating: 2/5
In 0004NGEL, directed by Eli Jean Tahchi, Àngel Vargas is a nude performer in clubs and online spaces. This short is far less interested in intellectualizing sex work, and far more interested in the seedy and undignified aspects of the profession.
Àngel is a Mexican-Canadian immigrant, whose life is largely depicted in montage, liberally scored with unsettling, sensual music as he dances in clubs and performs as a male cam model online for men. The few moments conveyed without this erotic tone are those wherein Àngel is speaking to his mother in Mexico, whom he financially supports.
The dark tone of the documentary feels like it comes from an elementary understanding of sex work, one which dwells upon its seedier aspects, though it doesn’t feel necessarily dishonest. 0004NGEL includes significantly more live audience reaction to his sex work than My Body Goes to Work, another short in the festival lineup, and in this respect feels more forthcoming. Seeing what men online are saying to Àngel, the degrading and objectifying comments he receives and learns to ignore, as well as the work he puts into maintaining his body for their enjoyment gives a less complimentary view of sex work even at its safest.
We do not see Àngel enter into any especially dangerous scenarios, but his day-to-day work still has a layer of grime imposed onto it by the film, which is almost entirely footage of him working a thankless job as degrading as any in the service industry. We see him strip, dance entirely nude in a shower, ask for tips as he sheds clothing one item at a time on camera, and workout in jeans in a small mirrored room which, frankly, was as off-putting as the rest of it.
Setting is not well-established, creating a kind of dreamlike quality to what we see of Àngel’s life, and combined with the tense, dramatic soundtrack, it ultimately felt stigmatizing and purely focused on the aesthetic quality of sex work.
Empowerment is not at the forefront of his mind, as far as we can tell, however Àngel never really speaks for himself during the documentary, so it is hard to be certain how he sees himself or his work. In terms of cause and effect, all the documentary really focuses on is labor and money. Àngel isn’t portrayed as well-off by any means, though we are led to believe he is relatively comfortable, and able to provide substantial help for his mother, who is aware of his work but does not seem to comment on the sexual nature of it, at least not on the record.
It feels there is very little to learn here. It is a one-dimensional portrait of a sex worker that feels a decade behind modern discourse on the subject. This short and edgy film has so little dialogue, it almost functions as a music video. Àngel is given so little opportunity to comment on his own work and family that he is as objectified by this short as he is by his audiences online and at the club.
My Body Goes to Work and 0004NGEL were seen during the 2026 Hot Docs film festival. Thank you to the festival for the screeners.
