Mustang… The House that Joe Built

This does practically everything wrong. It's an extremely low-budget documentary (one man and a hand-held camera) filmed inside the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, Nevada, which in 1970 became America's first legalised brothel. Guralnick tracks after Mustang boss Joe Conforte long after it becomes painfully obvious the guy's sayin' nuttin'; and there's little in the way of hard information. But it doesn't matter. The extreme sleaziness of the environment (a prison-like compound surrounded by ten-foot wire), in contrast to the collective persona revealed by the women, is so evident that all Guralnick has to do is keep the camera rolling. There's no doubt about the women being exploited, or about their resilience; and it is they who manage to give the film its subversive force.