This documentary is about the Red Light district of Amsterdam, as it is going through radical, far-reaching changes, the consequences of which might be felt all over Europe.
“Red Light Blues” starts with the Red Light district’s ‘Open Day,’ which was organized by Mariska Majoor (37), an ex prostitute who runs an information center on the Red Light district.
This ‘Open Day’ was sort of an idyllic reflection of paradise. The weather was gorgeous, thousands of people were moving slowly and cheerfully along the canal streets, and most of them were talking with the working girls behind the windows. As part of the ‘Open Day’ festivities, even a few men manned some windows, for the pleasure of lady-clients.
All this was in total contrast to what was going on in the political corridors. Politicians and business people, for their close-mouthed reasons, were beginning to push for the closure of the Red Light District.
Meanwhile, back at the ‘Open Day’, we were witnessing the unveiling of the first of its kind statue, honoring and glorifying prostitutes all over the world. Demonstrating a keen sense of humor, the statue was erected right next to the 700-year-old church, the “Oude Kerk.”
Just a short time after the extraordinary Red Light district’s ‘Open Day’ a critical strife started raging over the future of the streets of Amsterdam.
Other business people, prostitutes and ex-prostitutes struggle to keep the working girls relatively safe behind the windows, against the politicians’ wish to close the windows down and push the prostitutes out, to the sleazy and treacherous reality awaiting them on the streets.
Why some want to get rid of the Red Light District which for others is an idyllic habitat?
Amsterdam’s Red Light district is tightly controlled, pimps and underage working girls hardly exist. The windows’ working girls pay the regular taxes and they’re entitled to full health care and pension like every other citizen.
The Red Light district is in the midst of a residential area in which many ordinary families with children live.
There’s a total freedom of religion in this particular world as the prostitutes and the clients don’t care a bit if you’re a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim or a Buddhist. The discrimination of color also doesn’t exist here.
The Netherlands was the world’s first country to introduce the Law of Tolerance and thus the first country to stop treating prostitution in a hypocritical way.
Until now.
The City reclaimed hundreds of windows, under the pretext that they were run by criminals, painted them all in white and rents them out to fashion designers.
If you walk down the Red Light district, next to a window in which a lightly clad prostitute smiles at you, you’ll see a mannequin dressed in weird fashion. It is a shocking experience. Suddenly the human becomes inhuman, degraded.
We’ll attempt to understand what’s going on by talking with Amsterdam’s Mayor Mr. Job Cohen, with prostitutes and ex-prostitutes, with ‘ordinary’ people, politicians, clergy people, police officers, sociologists, historians and tourist guides.
The Salvation Army is also strategically situated in the midst of the Red Light district, and with their music and song they’re aiming to save our souls in the name of Jesus Christ and the scripture of the gospel.
So, there is still hope.
‘Red Light Blues’ is a light-hearted, straightforward (no hiddencamera) documentary with a touch of poetic flair.
