This is a personal portrait/documentary of a Dominatrix who lives and works in Toronto, and whose professional name is The Marquesa. In order to begin to understand the complexities of this unusual woman, one must be able to grasp a basic understanding of the S&M culture to which she belongs. The S&M community has its own etiquette, its own set of rules that must be learned: it is dependent on communication.

This video is a portrait in the sense that it is a representation of a personal ideology over a certain length of time. One of the Marquesa's main concerns is the need for an awareness of safety standards in S&M play: she speaks on panels and gives lectures based on this concern. Many aspects of her ideology are shared and further contextualized by her colleagues and friends.

The object of this piece, through Toronto's leading authorities on the subject, is to help people understand S&M culture through intelligent, critical analysis and visually compelling documentation of this intriguing subculture.