Fetishes is a 1996 documentary by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield, filmed at Pandora’s Box, one of New York City’s most luxurious SM and fetish parlours. It interviews professional dominatrices and their clients—including New York filmmaker Maria Beatty—and remains a key non-fiction look at high-end commercial dungeon culture. Produced in the United Kingdom and originally made for HBO, the U.S. DVD runs about 84 minutes in colour.
Opening Tour and Irving Klaw Archive
The film opens with black-and-white footage from an Irving Klaw production: models in classic fetish attire, including Bettie Page. Broomfield and his crew then arrive at Pandora’s Box on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. Mistress Raven gives them a tour of the facility, including the dungeon and the medical room—luxury architecture built for paid power exchange, not a dirty-basement stereotype.
Eight Chapters of the House
After the tour, the documentary unfolds in eight chapters that map the parlour’s menu and client psychology: Slaves; Mistresses; Rubber fetish; Wrestling fetish; Corporal punishment; Masochism; Infantilism; and Socio-political fetishes. The structure moves from room aesthetics to who pays whom—and for which fantasy of control, status, or surrender.
Release and Why It Matters
Fetishes reached U.S. DVD and later Nick Broomfield’s Documenting Icons box set; a full uncut cut with extra archive material is available in the UK. Related: BDSM, fetishism, rubberists, pro domination, Maria Beatty. For kink viewers, this is the 1990s Pandora’s Box tour that names workers, clients, and the menu.
