Lucrezia, I had to conclude, was the real deal — a domina who had walked straight out of the pages of an Eric Stanton comic strip into real life.

At later fetish weekends, where she was doing BDSM performances, catwalk or both and I was reporting from the event, we got to know each other better.

I quickly discovered that, fierce and fearless though her public persona might be, she was also charming and gregarious — one of those professionals who clearly expected to put something back into to the community.

Cavanagh promises that in his film, Ira will reveal for the first time what really happened on the fateful day that would end her career as a dominatrix

I was invited to visit her as a house-guest but sadly never managed to take up the offer. A latex designer friend who did — to discuss making outfits for her — came back to London with stories about the house’s ‘facilities’ that he told in wide-eyed amazement.

So it was a great shock, in the summer of 2010, to see this woman I’d come to know and to like splashed all over the news media — and not in a good way.

Darren Cavanagh promises that in his film, Ira will reveal for the first time what really happened on that fateful day, and how this event would end her work as a dominatrix and transform her destiny in ways she could never have imagined.

She is, he adds, “the narrator of her own story”, and the film, shot over the last five years, takes the viewer on an unexpected journey with her throughout Europe to the Indian state of Goa, where she currently lives.

The film begins in 2010 with Ira’s family, close friends, clients and colleagues all saying how unique, amazing, caring and creative a person she is.

These comments are contrasted with the kind of publicity she received as a result of the incident, with newspaper headlines describing her as  ‘Europe’s Most Perverted Dominatrix’.

Cavanagh’s 90-minute film then rewinds to the early 1960s in Antwerp and Ira’s early life, before building towards a detailed, nail-biting account of the shocking incident in 2010 that would change everything.

Ira is at the heart of her own story, says the director, and the film intercuts her many extensive interviews with home movie footage, photographs and cool animations of her top ten domination sessions.

Shot in numerous different locations, it includes fly-on-the-wall footage and her own private video diaries, especially recorded for the film.

Her story is juxtaposed with revealing interviews with all of her family, as well as close friends, clients, colleagues and a bunch of other colourful characters whose lives she has touched, transformed or inspired.

It’s a story that Darren Cavanagh, given his friendship with Ira, his long association with the fetish scene and his 20 years as a creative director in film marketing and advertising, is perfectly positioned to present.

He believes the big, cinematic production values of Ex-Dominatrix will surprise people used to fetish documentaries shot for the small screen.

And if that isn’t enough, there’s also the “cracking score” provided by Noko (ex-Apollo 440), another fetish scenester whose movie soundtrack credits range from Lost In Space and Charlie’s Angels to orchestral scores for recent films by French director Eric Vellette.

June 1, 2015

indiegogo.com/ex-dominatrix