#kokomo city d. smith interview

[thequeereview]

Exclusive Interview: filmmaker D. Smith centres Black transgender sex workers in Kokomo City "their stories needed to be told"

Filmmaker D. Smith’s raw, provocative, and funny documentary, Kokomo City, that centres the stories of four captivating Black transgender women, in their own words, won both the NEXT Innovator Award and NEXT Audience Award when it world premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It went on to win the Audience Award in the Panorama Documentary section at the prestigious Berlinale. It is a…

[o-the-mts]

Movie Review: Kokomo City (2023)

Title: Kokomo City Release Date: July 28, 2023 Director: D. Smith Production Company:  Couch Potatoe Pictures | Hillman Grad Productions Summary/Review: This documentary focuses on four Black transgender women who work as sex workers in New York City and Atlanta.  In their interviews the film’s subjects are frank in their discussion of their career choices and personal aspects of their lives. …

[pashterlengkap]

The 10 best LGBTQ+ films of 2023

This year’s crop of queer films has proven much more diverse and rich than in past years. In 2023, queer women and people of color occupied the screen space where cisgender gay white men once ruled. Also, the old storylines of sexual struggle under homophobia gave way to powerfully unapologetic queer folks of all ages defiantly finding their power and unapologetically standing in the foreground. This list shares 10 of the best queer films of the year. While it no doubt excludes a handful of other great queer cinema offerings, it nonetheless demonstrates how our stories as depicted onscreen have become much more vibrant and willful, even as our enemies redouble their efforts to attack and erase us. Related: These 6 LGBTQ+ holiday movies are a must-watch this Christmas Let’s make the yuletide gay. Cassandro Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our daily newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Promotions (occasional) * Week in Good News (one on the Weekend) * Week in Review (one on the Weekend) * Daily Brief (one each weekday) * Sign Up In this upbeat biopic, award-winning actor Gael García Bernal plays Saúl Armendáriz, a Mexican immigrant who gains fame as Cassandro, a real-life gay exótico (drag) lucha libre wrestler who was known for wearing makeup and animal prints in the ring and for drawing power from the homophobic opposition he faced in the traditionally macho sport. Starring alongside Latinx actors Bad Bunny and Raúl Castillo (who appeared in the gay HBO series Looking), Bernal’s fantastic chemistry with his female coach and closeted boyfriend makes for a glorious drama filled with jaw-dropping wrestling scenes that have delighted and inspired viewers. Bottoms Lesbian high school underdogs PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are helplessly infatuated with two seemingly straight female cheerleaders. When they’re falsely accused of assaulting the school’s babyfaced star football player, the girls claim the alleged attack was actually just a part of their new female self-defense club. Though they hope the club will make them seem more attractive to their cheerleader crushes, the scheme soon devolves into hilariously violent chaos as other female misfits join the club, eager to finally disrupt their school’s social hierarchy. Lesbian film fans may also be interested in the much more serious 2023 film Nyad, which features ally Annette Benning as Diana Nyad, a real-life lesbian swimmer who became the first person ever to swim from Cuba to Florida. Kokomo City Because of the violence and oppression they face, Black trans women sex workers are often depicted as tragic victims-in-waiting. But this debut film from trans music producer D. Smith showcases surprisingly humanizing and insightful interviews with four Black trans sex workers in Atlanta, Georgia, and New York City (as well as some of their cis-male clients) in a way that feels fresh, immediate, endlessly engaging, and definitely overdue. The women’s matter-of-fact views on navigating male sexuality underscore the women’s raw power and depict a rarely seen underworld. Sadly, one of the women, Rasheeda Williams (aka. Koko da Doll) was murdered a few months after the film’s Sundance debut. It’s worth noting that another 2023 documentary, The Stroll, provides an alternate, historic look at Black and Latina trans sex workers who frequented New York City’s Meatpacking District in the 1980s and ’90s. Saltburn Bisexual desire and class consciousness boil over in this darkly comedic tale of Oliver, an Oxford University student who befriends his rich classmate, Felix, and joins him for a stay at his family’s palatial estate. While the film delights in the cutting, deprecating dialogue of Felix’s family and the debauchery of young people enjoying excesses of pleasure, a dark intensity runs throughout the film as its twists… http://dlvr.it/T0cxLF

[jminter]

DOXA 2023 Festival Line-Up Debuts

This week, DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival, announced its 2023 Festival line-up.  The 22nd edition Festival returns to screens May 4 through May 14, 2023 with a roster of crucial and thought-provoking documentaries in theatrical venues across the city, bringing filmmakers and audiences together for a communal cinema experience. For those folks who prefer to view from the comfort of their own homes, a selection of festival films will be available to stream online after festival dates, between May 15 and 24, 2023. The 22nd annual DOXA Documentary Film Festival will showcase a total of 39 features and mid-lengths, 25 short films, as well as Industry events and multiple opportunities for filmmakers, audiences and industry professionals to connect.  Online films will be available to stream Canada-wide, through DOXA’s Eventive online platform. Theatrical screenings will take place at The Cinematheque, VIFF Centre and SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, while in-person industry events will be held at SFU’s World Arts Centre. DOXA presents Karen Cho’s Big Fight in Little Chinatown as this year’s Opening Presentation, screening on May 4th at SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema. All across the globe, Chinatowns are under threat of disappearing—and along with them, the rich history of communities who fought from the margins for a place to belong. Big Fight in Little Chinatown follows the communities that are fighting to end perpetual gentrification and displacement across North America. Other Special Presentations include: Kokomo City, directed by D. Smith, which documents the stories of four Black transgender sex workers in New York and Georgia as they share reflections on tangled desires, far-reaching taboos and gender’s many meanings (Justice Forum); King Coal, directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon, witnessing the daily rituals of life in Appalachia as the cultural roots of the coal industry continue to permeate, even as its economic power wanes (Rated Y for Youth);

and Kaveh Nabatian’s Kite Zo A (Leave the Bones), which weaves together ancestral veneration, choreographed dance and interviews to tell a story of fighting back against colonial oppression in Haiti (Closing Gala). DOXA also features three guest-curated programs. Vancouver-based curator, writer and current Director of Artspeak Gallery, Nya Lewis has selected the film Beba (Rebeca Huntt, 2021) for their program, A Radical Pluriverse: Reflections on Black Womanhood on Both Sides of the Lens. In Lewis’s words, “I consider it a privilege to access a spiritual legacy of mothers, sisters and daughters—a lineage or geneology of Black women(hood) that is defined by collective self-awareness, shared political consciousness, love, magic, quests for liberation and futurism.” Farah Clémentine Dramani-Issifou, whose research and curatorial work focuses on Afro-diasporic cinema and visual arts, has curated a program of short films called I AM A (WO)MAN: Transatlantic Perspectives on Political Struggles in the 1960s–1970s in Guinea-Bissau, Morocco, the USA and France. These short works highlight the cross-cultural and -continental “struggles for the emancipation of colonized peoples,” and display the collaborative work of filmmakers and labour activists in the fight. Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis program titled NORITA: The Mother of All Struggles features Jayson McNamara’s work-in-progress doc, Norita, which examines the life and revolutionary work of Nora Cortiñas, the most famous of the Madres of the Plaza de Mayo—Argentina’s movement of women fighting for justice amidst the country’s rampant political oppression. Beyond the festival’s cornerstone Justice Forum and Rated Y for Youth programs, DOXA 2023 will include two Spotlight programming streams: DANCE, DANCE OTHERWISE WE ARE LOST and THIN PLACES. As German dancer Pina Bausch once advised: “Dance, dance otherwise we are lost.” In an effort to make sense of the world, the films in this spotlight program meld the disciplines of dance and filmmaking, strengthening relationships between ancestors, culture and community in the process. Thin Places presents a collection of films exploring liminal and precarious zones. “There are places,” says Irish writer Kerri ní Dochartaigh, “both hollowed and hallowed, all in one.” Thin places, as they are known in the Celtic tradition, are locales where a sense of Heaven and Earth meet. But in this dense collection of films, Hell is present too.

NOT QUITE THAT tells the story of a nice Jewish butch lesbian with a genetic mutation that might just allow her to be fully seen at last Several Canadian filmmakers will bring their world premiere to DOXA 2023. Amy Miller’s latest film, Manufacturing the Threat, is a festival highlight: After the arrest and imprisonment of a young Surrey couple, their plot to commit acts of terrorism was revealed to be the work of government agent provocateurs aiming to entrap and create their own “threats.” Miller will also be giving a masterclass, co-presented by DOC BC | YT | NWT, as part of DOXA’s Industry program. Ali Grant’s Not Quite That champions an affecting local story; after finding out she is predisposed to breast cancer, Sarah White—a Jewish woman, mother, and butch lesbian—must decide whether to wait and see what happens, or act fast and have a preventative double mastectomy. These Canadian films and more are exciting titles in DOXA’s 2023 festival program. DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs May 4-14, 2023, with select films available to stream online after the festival, between May 15 thru 24, unless otherwise specified. Online films are geo-blocked to Canada and virtual tickets will be limited. Select screenings will include live and pre-recorded filmmaker Q+As and extended discussions. Festival tickets and passes are on sale now at doxafestival.ca    Read the full article

[variousqueerthings]

some more movies I watched this year (so far) that had some things to say about queerness that made my head explode

the transexual menace (1996): rosa von praunheim just wandered around new york interviewing trans people in a way that is off the walls in terms of just how many voices are included in the piece. the community, the scale of it, it's like rapid fire "how many experiences can you include in this (yes)." if you want to be inundated with the feeling of "we have always been here and we've always been fucking cool." my favourite ongoing thread is the interviews of trans immigrants from several continents, but there's so much to take in in such a short runtime, I feel like it deserves 100 more watches

kokomo city (2023): d smith celebrating black trans sex workers in several cities in america, notably allowed the kind of freedom of expression that comes from being an intracommunity piece, rather than voyeuristic a la elements of paris is burning. I swear our greatest philosophers of the age are black trans sex workers, you do not hear these truths in mainstream LGBT politics and philosophy, and also it's so fucking funny. d smith herself was lamenting how often film doesn't show just how funny trans women can be, as a part of undermining the overall complexity of trans woman experiences

wildhood (2021): a story about a multi-ethnic kid who flees his abusive father and goes on a roadtrip to find his mother and reconnect with his native Mi'kmaw heritage, and on the way also allows himself to challenge the fraught masculinity he was raised on, via falling in love with an Anishinabeg boy *deep breath.* there's no way I can celebrate this harder than through the above description, it packs so much depth of suppressed identities into a simple story, I don't think its like exists honestly, and that's not even going into how compellingly acted the characters are

honey moccasin (1998): so at the beginning of the year there was a one month online festival celebrating native film and I went on a binge -- this movie I went into without knowing the plot and I kind of loved that experience, so I'm hesitant to say too much about plot (also because how to summarise a plot so cornucopian). in terms of feel though, this is something that offers a tantalising example of counter-image to dominant, hollywood-ised cinema, not quite "avant-garde" so much as simply wholly itself, a joyful ride through a place and time, incredibly funny, and with that complex gender-sexuality-ethnicity that isn't easy to sum up using white eurocentric terminology

glen or glenda (1953): I don't think it's quite possible to be able to fully comprehend how modern trans identities have been crafted without this film. at this point in time american psychiatrists were winning the fight to "own" the language of transness, putting us squarely (or so they thought) into the realm of pathologisation and medicalisation as a way of enforcing conformity. this film captures that zeitgeist, while also putting out impassioned pleas for tolerance, in language that is struggling against the small box that we can exist in, at times breaking out and giving us images that are intensely modern (or maybe reminiscent of pre-war ideas?) and at others functioning within those limitations. it's frustrating, it's illuminating, it's colonialist, it's an attempt at liberation, it's an indelible, visible stamp of history

lotus sports club: this one's a tad more personal to me, I've screened this movie, I've met one of the directors, I play football, getting to see trans people a continent away building spaces that I've found lacking in my own country (but crucially are being built at a community level now as well) squeezes at my heart so intensely, both times I've seen this film I've felt like I wasn't breathing. we're connected across space in a way that cannot be sufficiently described in a simple summary. also there's a fundraiser to support this team and the trans guys who've played on it so there's a tangible way to reach out to our siblings in Cambodia

great freedom 🤝 joyland

queer existence may be treated as unwanted and even criminal, but it’s potentially full of far more freedom and community and joy than can be found by clinging desperately to systems that make you force yourself into tinier versions of selfhood, just to maintain correct ways of being, and although there is likely punishment and loss and pain that these smaller people will dole out to force queerness out of existence, the fight is worth it, and the self is worth it, and the joy is worth it