Buying Sex

Plot Summary

Buying Sex looks at the contentious debate over pending reforms to Canadian prostitution laws, and in the process asks us to rethink and review our attitudes toward the “oldest profession,” a.k.a. the “oldest oppression.” This feature film by directors Teresa MacInnes and Kent Nason brings forward the voices of sex workers who support law amendments, formerly prostituted women who want abolition, policy-makers, lawyers and even the male buyers. All agree that they want to improve the workers’ safety, but they have polarized philosophies about how that can be best achieved. To show all sides of this multi-layered issue, the filmmakers take us to two countries that have made groundbreaking reforms: Sweden, with its recently adopted, feminist-based zero-tolerance law, and New Zealand, with its decriminalization model.