In Praise of Paul

On Wednesday night, we had the Canadian premiere of The War on Whores, to a very nearly full house; the panel afterward consisted of me, veteran Vancouver sex worker activist Kerry Porth, and Svend Robinson, Canada’s first openly-gay MP (who retired from Parliament in 2004 but is now running for office again).  But while I’m getting most of the attention at these events, and in the buzz surrounding the film, I think it’s important to acknowledge that my part in both the creation of the movie and the screenings largely consists of just being Maggie McNeill.  Everything else, from the original concept, to the development, to running the camera and sound, to chasing down the other interviewees, to editing, to promotion, to event planning, is the work of producer/director Paul Johnson.  When Paul (far left in the picture below, with Svend and Kerry) first approached me in October of ’15 with the proposal to do this film, I was interested but wary; he quickly allayed my concerns and has never once given me any cause to question his motives or abilities.  In more than three years of working together he has never treated me with anything other than respect and professionalism, nor ever given me even a hint that he thought of me any differently than he would think of any other professional he was working with.  He made this film happen almost single-handedly, and is still putting in a tremendous amount of work to prepare it for other distribution channels (including Amazon and DVD) and set up screenings and other publicity.  I owe a great deal to him, and if the movie takes off as we hope it will, I want everyone to remember that while I’m the pretty face in front of the camera, Paul is the brains and talent behind the camera who made it all possible.