Pleasure for Sale

Pleasure for Sale is a six-part documentary series that follows the prostitutes and family members connected to the Chicken Ranch, the legal brothel in Pahrump, Nevada. It is produced by Joe and Harry Gantz, the filmmakers behind HBO's Taxicab Confessions, and offers an intimate look at the sex trade and the effect it has on the women and their families. Some of the women are college graduates and others are housewives with no other marketable skills. There are students while others have day jobs like office work. Many of the women have been the victims of incest, rape, bad relationships and broken homes. Pleasure for Sale deals with the largely unseen mechanics of the trade like the difficult price negotiations inherent in the profession, STD testing and the strained relationship among the women. The smothering restrictions placed upon the women are presented. Although the series features a lot of nudity, it doesn't focus on gratuitous sex.