Exotic is the second documentary for former Madison resident Amy Oden.
The tiny Western Pacific island of Guam is a U.S. territory. But for the American women who sign lucrative contracts to work in strip clubs there, it may as well be another planet.
The multi-layered world of Guam’s sex work industry is exposed in Exotic, a new documentary by one-time Madison resident Amy Oden. Through interviews with dancers and hidden camera footage in clubs, the film explores the lives of women who earn good money in the tropical paradise, entering a foreign workplace as migrants in what’s technically their own country.
But Oden also exposes the underbelly of the industry, where women from nearby countries — some entering with valid entertainment visas, others trafficked under the guise of domestic work — are paid paltry wages to work in massage parlors. Local women may work on the street.
Exotic, provides a front-row seat to Guam’s complicated neocolonial cultural dynamics. The island was “discovered” by explorer Ferdinand Magellan for Spain, claimed by the United States during the Spanish-American War, and occupied briefly by Japan during World War II. Currently, the island near the Philippines is the home of U.S. Navy and Air Force bases. Japanese tourists visit the island with the idea of living out an American fantasy, and soldiers hit the clubs for a night on the town.
Oden became curious about dancers and sex workers after a friend was offered a well-paid contract to dance in Guam. During grad school, Oden wrangled a month-long independent study there. She later returned for a position at the University of Guam in 2012.
“I was teaching gender studies during the day, and at night, was going to strip clubs and meeting dancers and setting up interviews,” she says.
Dancers from the mainland told Oden they were taken aback by loose norms in Guam. Patrons routinely touched them, a taboo in the States. They felt that law enforcement was more concerned with keeping STI rates low than with protecting sex workers’ personal and professional rights.
Exotic, is the second documentary for Oden, currently a digital producer for Maryland PBS. Her first film, From the Back of the Room, details 30 years of the women’s DIY music movement.
Exotic will screen at 8 p.m. on June 13 at Art In Gallery, 1444 East Washington Ave. For more information, visit exoticdocumentary.com.
