This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the documentary being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Choosing what your debut feature will be about takes a lot of work. You might want to go for something you know the audience will love because of the genres, topics, actors, etc or for something totally unexpected. Director D. Smith didn’t settle for the predictable or the usual. No, her choice is much bolder, braver and edgier. Kokomo City gives us a humane and gripping portrayal of the world of Black transgender sex workers in the US.
Besides being a director, actress and cinematographer, Smith is also a two-time Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer. She certainly knows how to choose the perfect soundtrack, as this feature opens with the fitting Randy Crawford’s “Street Life.” Throughout this film, Smith combines her original songs with blues, and funk numbers, such as “Sissy Man Blues” by Kokomo Arnold. This is to create the perfect atmosphere for what’s coming. Those upbeat songs are the ideal counterbalances for the difficult stories the Black, transgender sex workers (Liyah Mitchell, Dominque Silver, Koko Da Doll, and Daniella Ca) from Atlanta and New York City will tell you in this documentary.
In the US and many other countries, being a sex worker is highly frowned upon. To ensure the audience doesn’t see the women as ‘strange’, ‘dirty’ or ‘trash’, Smith humanises the subjects by allowing them to each tell their story in a calm, respectful and intimate way. The testimonials, filmed in beautiful black-and-white, are about the many struggles sex workers, Black women, and transgender people face. As you can imagine, the heartbreaking stories are hard to hear and watch, but that’s exactly why they deserve time in the spotlight.
To enrich these powerful stories, there are reenactments by actors who portray the terrible, impactful and mostly violent past incidents these women had to go through. Hearing and seeing the reenactment of how cis men deal with the ‘loss’ of their masculinity after having sex with transwomen who still have genitals from both genders is a tough but necessary watch. There are also some interviews with other people, including music producer and writer Lo, about their (sexual) encounters with transgender sex workers and their perspective on those women.
In the past, there have been many features about the injustice that transwomen of colour face, such as the iconic Paris is Burning, KIKI and Disclosure. Sadly, the narrative of those features was dramatized for entertainment purposes. Smith doesn’t do that with Kokomo City at all. No, it soon becomes clear that she makes this work feel very close to reality to show us a world we might not be familiar with. The movie also takes on the immense mission to make people, who maybe even participate in the violence against trans sex workers, aware that the women they hurt are human beings who must be treated with respect and acceptance. To counterbalance the depictions of violence inflicted on the sex workers and the intense emotions that come with it, Smith uses that funky soundtrack to bring out the playfulness, humoristic and vibrant side of her feature too.
Because Smith doesn’t use a lot of dramatic or shocking cuts, apart from when one confession goes over to a reenactment of what happened, the subjects get a proper chance to show us their sense of self and strong personalities. You’ll also notice relatively early on in this feature that transgender sex workers face similar struggles throughout their job. This creates a feeling of coming together and a sort of solidarity among them. It also maybe creates unity between the people who recognise (part of) themselves in the women on screen. The close-ups and sometimes slow-motion shots heighten the impact of the testimonials.
While Kokomo City’s runtime is only 70 minutes, which might have been too short given the importance of the topic, the messages come through loud and clear. The women in this documentary and director D. Smith show us that it’s finally time we see Black transgender sex workers as humans and not as people that can be exploited, hurt and fetishised just because of the job they do and who they are.
Kokomo City is playing in theaters from the 28th of July courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdM2voAE-ok]
The directional debut by D. Smith, Kokomo City, gives you an important, gripping and honest insight into the life of transgender sex workers.
Freelancer by day. Film journalist by night.
