MARK WAITE / PVT A cameraman for Real Life Productions (center) tapes the Pahrump town board meeting for a documentary about prostitution. MARK WAITE / PVT A crew for Alphaville Productions films scenes for a movie at a lot on Bell Vista Avenue. Advertisement

Filmmakers have again been training their cameras on Pahrump.

Last summer, film crews were shooting "Lady Magdalene," involving a bizarre plot about a madam at a brothel who uncovers an al Qaeda plot.

Now two separate film directors are using Pahrump as a location. They've been filming at a trailer along Bell Vista Avenue to the Chicken Ranch Brothel, recruiting extras with a sign at Albertson's Supermarket for a scene at a local church, even filming a Pahrump town board meeting.

Harry and Joe Gantz, who formerly produced the popular series, "Taxicab Confessions," are spending a year filming a documentary for The Sundance Channel on a topic much of the out-of-town media likes to focus on: legalized prostitution.

Director Amir Naderi, with Alphaville Films Inc., on the other hand, is using Pahrump to film scenes for a movie simply called "Las Vegas," about a couple saved from their gambling addiction by their son.

The prostitution documentary filming began last June, Harry Gantz said.

"We first came up and started researching it almost two years ago. We're looking to find a brothel that would allow us to learn a little bit about how they do business and give us access to the women and employees that work there, and the Chicken Ranch allowed us to do that," Gantz said. "We're looking at the legal brothel industry through the relationship between the brothel and the community that it's in. Since we ended up getting permission to shoot at the Chicken Ranch it ended up being Pahrump."

Gantz said the documentary, to be aired six 30-minute segments, will consider the political implications to the community and the psychological ramifications on the women that work there and their clients. Reactions vary from the reactions of religious leaders who oppose organized prostitution to those of local residents with a more laissez-faire attitude.

"We're following the women both at the work place and at home with their families, trying to get the psychological underpinnings of why they do their job and how it affects them," Gantz said.

Producers even paid for former Pahrump Valley Times managing editor Doug McMurdo to drive down from Elko for an interview about the pending federal court case involving Crystal brothel owner Joe Richards. Richards wouldn't consent to an interview; the producers said they weren't interested in filming at his brothels.

"We're trying to follow people over time so we can get a story that has some resonance. We don't just come in for a few days and leave," Gantz said.

Real Life Productions expects to come to Pahrump to film for a few days every month, sometimes a week at a time. They will be following some of the working girls to their homes which could be anywhere from nearby Las Vegas to more distant places like Texas.

"We're interested in talking to almost anybody that has a strong opinion pro or con," Gantz said. Film crews talked to the flagman, Ray Mielzynski, to politicians, to retirees.

"Talking to some religious leaders, they don't want the image of the town to be the home of the brothels," he said. "Other people think what the brothels contribute is worth having them there."

Gantz said the mystique about the brothels isn't there for local Pahrump residents as it is for out-of-towners. People routinely dine at the Resort at Sheri's Ranch. He noted there doesn't seem to be a strong desire to change the status quo, after previous attempts to ban prostitution died out.

The Iranian-born Amir Naderi was barking out orders to boys acting in his movie "Las Vegas, " pounding on an old trailer on Bell Vista Avenue, after Walt Turner, the co-producer, stirred up some dust with an all-terrain vehicle.

"They wanted a dumpy house on the outside of Las Vegas, so I took them to Pahrump," Turner said, who is also a scout for the film industry.

"It's a low-budget independent film that is aimed for film festivals. It's about a family with a gambling problem, struggling to overcome it, and the son pulls them back as a family," Turner said.

Naderi was invited to show his 1993 film "Manhattan by Numbers" at the Venice Film Festival, according to his biography. His 1985 film "The Runner" won grand prizes at the Festival des 3 Continents. His 1997 film "ABC Manhattan" was honored at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Homeowner Cathy Leach, who plays "Miss Scarlett" as part of the Guns n' Garters gunfighter group in Pahrump, may not have been too flattered about her place being chosen for "a dumpy house," but she said the crews cleaned up her lot a little, which has included remains of an Old West village.

"I said it's a bit messy and he said that's fine, I want it just the way it is," Leach said.

Leach will have a bit part as Doris the waitress.

Zach Thomas, 14, was being harrassed by bullies rousing him from the RV during the scene filmed repeatedly last weekend on Bell Vista Avenue. Thomas said he has performed school plays in Long Beach, Calif., and attended the John Robert Powers modeling school. He didn't mind being abused by the bullies.

Local teenage boys Dylan Ward, Cody Coulter and Justin Hodge were the bullies. Thomas came to the RV to hide as part of the plot.

Naderi said he and his crew has been filming in Pahrump for five months and expects to be in town until April. Then they'll return to downtown Las Vegas.

"I think it's great, because it's very innocent for me. I think this place is very innocent," Naderi said in broken English. He also likes the dust and the lighting in Pahrump.

"You have two different fights, you have a fight with his family, you have a fight with these boys and he wants to be somebody, nothing to do, nobody helps him, he gets angry in life," Naderi said.

Naderi then resumed filming with a plastic bag stretched around the camera to keep out the dust. He yelled out to the actors, "OK, let's do it! Action!"