Filmmaker Statement

BOOTIE'S set out to be a sharp, sexy comedy based on our writer Gracie’s real experience dancing at an underground Manhattan lap dance club. The story dives into the backstage lives of women navigating work, power, friendship, and survival. This collaboration started completely by chance—Milana and Gracie met serendipitously at one of Gracie’s comedy shows in Toronto, where Milana happened to be directing a commercial. The timing, the connection, and the creative alignment all hit instantly. It just felt like this project was meant to be. BOOTIE'S became the perfect merging of their comedy backgrounds and their shared love of telling the male gaze to f*ck off. We wanted to make something that didn’t rely on voyeurism or trauma, but instead showed the club as we experienced it: a workplace full of absurdity, intimacy, and humor. Our goal wasn’t to explain or justify the world of sex work, but to reflect its human side with specificity, bite, and love. Together, we built a world