The Cinema Eye Honors announced the winners for its documentary films and series competition Friday in Manhattan, with “32 Sounds” taking the honor for outstanding nonfiction feature. Maite Alberdi won outstanding direction for “The Eternal Memory” together with Kaouther Ben Hania for “Four Daughters,” while “Paul T. Goldman” won outstanding nonfiction series.
See all the winners below:
—Outstanding Nonfiction Feature
32 Sounds
Directed by Sam Green
Produced by Josh Penn and Thomas O. Kriegsmann
—Outstanding Direction
Maite Alberdi
The Eternal Memory
Kaouther Ben Hania
Four Daughters
—Outstanding Editing
Michael Harte
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
—Outstanding Production
Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson Rath, Derl McCrudden and Vasilisa Stepanenko
20 Days in Mariupol
—Outstanding Cinematography
Ants Tammik
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
—Outstanding Original Score
Jd Samson
32 Sounds
—Outstanding Sound Design
Mark Mangini
32 Sounds
—Outstanding Visual Design
Thomas Curtis and Sean Pierce
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
—Outstanding Debut
Kokomo...
See all the winners below:
—Outstanding Nonfiction Feature
32 Sounds
Directed by Sam Green
Produced by Josh Penn and Thomas O. Kriegsmann
—Outstanding Direction
Maite Alberdi
The Eternal Memory
Kaouther Ben Hania
Four Daughters
—Outstanding Editing
Michael Harte
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
—Outstanding Production
Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson Rath, Derl McCrudden and Vasilisa Stepanenko
20 Days in Mariupol
—Outstanding Cinematography
Ants Tammik
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
—Outstanding Original Score
Jd Samson
32 Sounds
—Outstanding Sound Design
Mark Mangini
32 Sounds
—Outstanding Visual Design
Thomas Curtis and Sean Pierce
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
—Outstanding Debut
Kokomo...
- 1/13/2024
- by Jazz Tangcay, Caroline Brew, Jaden Thompson and Diego Ramos Bechara
- Variety Film + TV
The Hulu series The 1619 Project and the Showtime feature Nothing Lasts Forever scored a leading three nominations apiece today as the Cinema Eye Honors announced its first round of contenders for the prestigious documentary-focused awards.
The 1619 Project, based on Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Pulitzer Prize-winning examination of slavery in North America and its impact up until the present day, earned nominations for Best Anthology Series, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Oprah Winfrey, Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams and Hannah-Jones are among the producers of the six-part series.
‘Nothing Lasts Forever’
Nothing Lasts Forever, director Jason Kohn’s glittering examination of the world of diamonds – the real kind and the emergence of undetectable “synthetic” diamonds – earned nominations for Best Broadcast Film, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Scroll for the full list of nominations announced today.
Other films and series that scored multiple nominations include Hulu’s Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields...
The 1619 Project, based on Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Pulitzer Prize-winning examination of slavery in North America and its impact up until the present day, earned nominations for Best Anthology Series, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Oprah Winfrey, Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams and Hannah-Jones are among the producers of the six-part series.
‘Nothing Lasts Forever’
Nothing Lasts Forever, director Jason Kohn’s glittering examination of the world of diamonds – the real kind and the emergence of undetectable “synthetic” diamonds – earned nominations for Best Broadcast Film, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Scroll for the full list of nominations announced today.
Other films and series that scored multiple nominations include Hulu’s Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields...
- 10/19/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Hulu’s “The 1619 Project” and Showtime’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” lead all broadcast documentaries in nominations for the 17th annual Cinema Eye Honors, which were announced on Thursday during the Cinema Eye Fall Lunch at Redbird in downtown Los Angeles.
Each of the programs received three nominations in the five broadcast categories, with “The 1619 Project” nominated in the Anthology Series, cinematography and editing categories and “Nothing Lasts Forever” singled out in Broadcast film, cinematography and editing categories.
Other programs with multiple nominations include the broadcast movie “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” the nonfiction series “Dear Mama” and “Paul T. Goldman” and the anthology series “Edge of the Unknown With Jimmy Chin” and “Our Planet II.”
Hulu led all networks and platforms with eight nominations, followed by Netflix with five and Showtime with four.
Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based organization devoted to honoring all facets of nonfiction filmmaking, also...
Each of the programs received three nominations in the five broadcast categories, with “The 1619 Project” nominated in the Anthology Series, cinematography and editing categories and “Nothing Lasts Forever” singled out in Broadcast film, cinematography and editing categories.
Other programs with multiple nominations include the broadcast movie “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” the nonfiction series “Dear Mama” and “Paul T. Goldman” and the anthology series “Edge of the Unknown With Jimmy Chin” and “Our Planet II.”
Hulu led all networks and platforms with eight nominations, followed by Netflix with five and Showtime with four.
Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based organization devoted to honoring all facets of nonfiction filmmaking, also...
- 10/19/2023
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
A series of portraits of Black trans sex workers and the men who lust after them, D. Smith’s Kokomo City plays as a hyper-stylized companion to Zackary Drucker and Kristen Lovell’s recent The Stroll. But where The Stroll elaborates on the relationship between New York City, particularly the Meatpacking District, and trans women’s hustle using rather formulaic storytelling, Kokomo City’s look at trans sex work in Atlanta is more original.
The film’s most significant accomplishment is the mood it crafts with its cool black-and-white images, fast-paced editing, unorthodox camera angles, handheld camera, and overall jazzy atmosphere. But Smith’s investment on surfaces can only sustain the documentary for so long, as the discourse level of its interviewed subjects—a mix of trans sex workers and, to a lesser extent, trans-attracted men—never quite catches up to the euphoria of the visuals.
Kokomo City begins as...
The film’s most significant accomplishment is the mood it crafts with its cool black-and-white images, fast-paced editing, unorthodox camera angles, handheld camera, and overall jazzy atmosphere. But Smith’s investment on surfaces can only sustain the documentary for so long, as the discourse level of its interviewed subjects—a mix of trans sex workers and, to a lesser extent, trans-attracted men—never quite catches up to the euphoria of the visuals.
Kokomo City begins as...
- 7/23/2023
- by Diego Semerene
- Slant Magazine
Hello and welcome to the Scene 2 Seen podcast. I am Valerie Complex, and today we’re talking about the HBO documentary The Stroll with its directors Kristen Lovell (in her directorial debut), and Zackary Drucker, and one of the film’s subjects Carey Smith about the making of the film, how “The Stroll” became a tight knit community, and the repercussions of changes that exist in the Meatpacking District today. Here is a bit more info regarding today’s guest!
When Lovell moved to New York City in the 1990s and began to transition, she was fired from her job. With so few options to earn money to survive, Kristen, like many transgender women of color during this era, began sex work in an area known as “The Stroll” in the Meatpacking District of lower Manhattan. There is where trans women congregated and forged a deep camaraderie to protect each other from harassment and violence.
When Lovell moved to New York City in the 1990s and began to transition, she was fired from her job. With so few options to earn money to survive, Kristen, like many transgender women of color during this era, began sex work in an area known as “The Stroll” in the Meatpacking District of lower Manhattan. There is where trans women congregated and forged a deep camaraderie to protect each other from harassment and violence.
- 7/7/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
There is a raw, dangerous yet distinctly unapologetic demeanor to the grainy archival footage in the documentary film The Stroll, now streaming on HBO, where transgender sex workers bravely walk the streets of New York City and solicit potential customers cruising by in their cars. Winner of the Special Jury Award – Clarity of Vision at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, The Stroll is the story of director Kristen Lovell’s experience living on the streets in the ‘90s and making money as a sex worker in the Meatpacking District of lower Manhattan.
When Lovell began her transition in New York in the 1990s she was fired from her job, a common occurrence for transgender women of color. Lacking other professional opportunities, and to make ends meet, she began doing sex work in an area known as “the stroll.”
“It’s where trans women congregated and forged a deep camaraderie to protect...
When Lovell began her transition in New York in the 1990s she was fired from her job, a common occurrence for transgender women of color. Lacking other professional opportunities, and to make ends meet, she began doing sex work in an area known as “the stroll.”
“It’s where trans women congregated and forged a deep camaraderie to protect...
- 7/3/2023
- by Sunil Sadarangani
- Deadline Film + TV
Queer history is an act of excavation. Telling stories about the LGBTQ community — and of transgender people in particular — necessarily requires sifting through archives that are outright hostile to those they document. In “The Stroll,” a new HBO documentary directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker, the filmmakers excavate decades’ worth of images to tell the story of trans sex workers in the Meatpacking District of New York City. Ostensibly a slice of local history of an increasingly gentrified city that sees marginalized folks as handily disposable, “The Stroll” is an empathetic portrait of a community still fighting for its own survival.
The film opens on footage of a young Lovell, taken from the 2007 doc “Queer Streets,” in which she speaks about how she first turned to sex work to make money — more money, in fact, than what she made at her day job. Her eyes are a bit glazed...
The film opens on footage of a young Lovell, taken from the 2007 doc “Queer Streets,” in which she speaks about how she first turned to sex work to make money — more money, in fact, than what she made at her day job. Her eyes are a bit glazed...
- 6/22/2023
- by Manuel Betancourt
- Variety Film + TV
In a new documentary, two trans film-makers aim to shed light on a community often stereotyped and undervalued
For trans film-maker Kristen Lovell, her new documentary The Stroll – co-directed with another trans film-maker, Zackary Drucker, and premiering on HBO this week – was about including an ignored chapter of trans history, one that she herself lived. Young, Black and trans in 90s New York, Lovell was fired from her job when she began to live her truth and was forced to sustain herself via sex work. The Stroll is a testament to what she went through just to be herself and the stories of so many other women like her that she met along the way.
“It was just time to tell this story,” Lovell told me. “There was a void, a generational void, where we went from the likes of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson to this new generation...
For trans film-maker Kristen Lovell, her new documentary The Stroll – co-directed with another trans film-maker, Zackary Drucker, and premiering on HBO this week – was about including an ignored chapter of trans history, one that she herself lived. Young, Black and trans in 90s New York, Lovell was fired from her job when she began to live her truth and was forced to sustain herself via sex work. The Stroll is a testament to what she went through just to be herself and the stories of so many other women like her that she met along the way.
“It was just time to tell this story,” Lovell told me. “There was a void, a generational void, where we went from the likes of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson to this new generation...
- 6/21/2023
- by Veronica Esposito
- The Guardian - Film News
Necropolitics and trans poetics never quite become one in Zackary Drucker and Kristen Lovell’s The Stroll, which recounts the history of the titular area of New York’s Meatpacking District where trans women went to make a living as sex workers between the 1970s and ‘90s. The documentary’s activist ethos takes up all of its space, and while Drucker and Lovell attest to the resilience of trans women in the face of relentless violence, they unfortunately opt for the most formulaic kind of visual storytelling. Which makes it difficult for ambiguity, the very stuff that desire is made of, to ever creep into the mix.
Apart from a few animated sequences dramatizing a predictable pattern of trans living that begins with a sex worker’s police arrest and ends with her returning to the streets, the film’s stylistic commitment is rooted in an apparent will to pass for routine streaming fare.
Apart from a few animated sequences dramatizing a predictable pattern of trans living that begins with a sex worker’s police arrest and ends with her returning to the streets, the film’s stylistic commitment is rooted in an apparent will to pass for routine streaming fare.
- 6/21/2023
- by Diego Semerene
- Slant Magazine
Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s Sundance-premiering The Stroll is a beautifully and lovingly crafted time capsule of NYC’s Meatpacking District that mostly spans from Giuliani’s infamous “broken windows” reign of terror through Bloomberg’s post-9/11 “gentrification on steroids,” as one knowledgeable interviewee ruefully reflects (seconds after I coincidentally yelled those same words at my screener). Unsurprisingly, our billionaire mayor did indeed view unrestrained capitalism as the solution to every problem, including that of the “undesirable” communities—starving artists and sex workers—that called the neighborhood home. For me, the most revelatory aspect of this heartfelt walk down memory lane isn’t that it’s offered from […]
The post “A Call to Action for Everybody To Preserve Their History Before It’s Gone”: Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “A Call to Action for Everybody To Preserve Their History Before It’s Gone”: Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 6/21/2023
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s Sundance-premiering The Stroll is a beautifully and lovingly crafted time capsule of NYC’s Meatpacking District that mostly spans from Giuliani’s infamous “broken windows” reign of terror through Bloomberg’s post-9/11 “gentrification on steroids,” as one knowledgeable interviewee ruefully reflects (seconds after I coincidentally yelled those same words at my screener). Unsurprisingly, our billionaire mayor did indeed view unrestrained capitalism as the solution to every problem, including that of the “undesirable” communities—starving artists and sex workers—that called the neighborhood home. For me, the most revelatory aspect of this heartfelt walk down memory lane isn’t that it’s offered from […]
The post “A Call to Action for Everybody To Preserve Their History Before It’s Gone”: Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “A Call to Action for Everybody To Preserve Their History Before It’s Gone”: Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 6/21/2023
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Egyptt, Lady P, Ceyenne, Cashmere: they’re all on intimate terms with The Stroll, a strip of 14th Street in the Meatpacking District once popular with Black trans sex workers in pre-yuppified Manhattan. It was a dangerous life; the streetwalkers often didn’t know if they’d be beaten up by the johns or the cops. But at the end of the day they knew they had each other, and it’s this sense of community and camaraderie that stands out in The Stroll, the new HBO documentary from stroller-turned-filmmaker Kristen Lovell.
- 6/21/2023
- by Chris Vognar
- Rollingstone.com
In honor of LGBTQ Pride Month, Max is highlighting the history of transgender women of color and the battles they fought. In “The Stroll,” director Kristen Lovell gives viewers a very intimate look into her life as a transgender woman working in the Meatpacking District in Lower Manhattan. The film first debuted at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and now, viewers at home can enjoy the documentary’s rich history. “The Stroll” premieres on Max on Wednesday, June 21 at 9 p.m. Et. You can watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Max.
How to Watch 'The Stroll' When: Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at 9:00 Pm Edt Where: Max Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Max. 7-Day Free Trial$9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com
Get 20% Off Your Next Year of Max When Pre-Paid Annually
About 'The Stroll'
In the 1990s, as trans individuals began to transition, many lost their jobs.
How to Watch 'The Stroll' When: Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at 9:00 Pm Edt Where: Max Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Max. 7-Day Free Trial$9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com
Get 20% Off Your Next Year of Max When Pre-Paid Annually
About 'The Stroll'
In the 1990s, as trans individuals began to transition, many lost their jobs.
- 6/21/2023
- by Aubrey Chorpenning
- The Streamable
A pair of essential documentaries from Sundance Film Festival this year examined the lives of trans sex workers through their own perspectives, and now both will be arriving this summer. Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s The Stroll, coming to HBO and Max next week, explores 1990s sex work in NYC’s now-gentrified Meatpacking District, while D. Smith’s Kokomo City, opening in theaters later next month, gives the spotlight to four trans sex workers from Atlanta and NYC. Ahead of both releases, the first trailers have now arrived.
John Fink said in his review of The Stroll, “A frank celebration of a pre-Giuliani New York, Kristen Lovell and Zachary Drucker’s The Stroll explores a unique period from the inside. Lovell––an actress, activist, and the producer of the seminal trans film The Garden Left Behind––knows the streets well, and after being the subject of a 2007 documentary about...
John Fink said in his review of The Stroll, “A frank celebration of a pre-Giuliani New York, Kristen Lovell and Zachary Drucker’s The Stroll explores a unique period from the inside. Lovell––an actress, activist, and the producer of the seminal trans film The Garden Left Behind––knows the streets well, and after being the subject of a 2007 documentary about...
- 6/15/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Corporate consolidation, along with shrinking publicity budgets and streaming services’ willingness to bury their own content, have made film festivals and series increasingly desirable to documentary filmmakers who are not only seeking distribution, but also to those nonfiction helmers who have found a platform for their work.
The rocky landscape has made the competition fierce for a slot at not only top-tier festivals, but also regional film events like New York’s Rooftop Films’ Summer Series.
Over the course of the last year, Rooftop Films president Dan Nuxoll received 3,500 film submissions for the nonprofit organization’s 27th annual Summer Series, which kicks off on May 25. Only 23 feature films were accepted. (Not all films have been announced.)
Fourteen of the 23 features Nuxoll chose are documentaries. include high profile docs like Chris Smith’s “Wham!” (Netflix), Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s “The Stroll” (HBO Documentary Films), Sacha Jenkins’ “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues...
The rocky landscape has made the competition fierce for a slot at not only top-tier festivals, but also regional film events like New York’s Rooftop Films’ Summer Series.
Over the course of the last year, Rooftop Films president Dan Nuxoll received 3,500 film submissions for the nonprofit organization’s 27th annual Summer Series, which kicks off on May 25. Only 23 feature films were accepted. (Not all films have been announced.)
Fourteen of the 23 features Nuxoll chose are documentaries. include high profile docs like Chris Smith’s “Wham!” (Netflix), Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s “The Stroll” (HBO Documentary Films), Sacha Jenkins’ “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues...
- 5/25/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
New York’s NewFest has announced the full lineup for their third annual NewFest Pride Summer Film Series. The event kicks off LGBTQ+ Pride Month from June 1-5 in New York, and will feature a mix of exclusive in-person premieres/panels, virtual screenings, and social events. The announcement came today from NewFest’s Executive Director David Hatkoff and Director of Programming Nick McCarthy.
“The LGBTQ+ community is once again under attack, making it all the more essential that NewFest continue to loudly and proudly amplify queer voices,” said NewFest Executive Director David Hatkoff. “We can’t wait to kick off Pride month by bringing the community together for bold new films, necessary conversations, and celebratory social gatherings. Think you can silence us? Ha. Think again.”
“From family dramas to documentaries to absurdist comedies, this year’s line-up includes an expanse of highly anticipated films that capture the varied ways our...
“The LGBTQ+ community is once again under attack, making it all the more essential that NewFest continue to loudly and proudly amplify queer voices,” said NewFest Executive Director David Hatkoff. “We can’t wait to kick off Pride month by bringing the community together for bold new films, necessary conversations, and celebratory social gatherings. Think you can silence us? Ha. Think again.”
“From family dramas to documentaries to absurdist comedies, this year’s line-up includes an expanse of highly anticipated films that capture the varied ways our...
- 5/9/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Hot Docs has wrapped its 30th anniversary edition, handing out its top cash prize and announcing the audience top picks after an 11-day festival, which presented 214 films from 72 countries at 308 live screenings at venues across Toronto.
Philippe Falardeau’s “Lac-Mégantic—This Is Not an Accident” topped the overall audience poll to win the 2023 Hot Docs Audience Award. The four-part series from the Oscar-nominated director explores the causes of one of Canada’s worst rail disasters and what’s needed to prevent such accidents in the future.
“Someone Lives Here,” by Zack Russell, won the Rogers Audience Awards for Best Canadian Documentary, which comes with Cdn. $50,000 cash, and also claimed the second-highest spot in the overall audience poll. The film also won the inaugural Bill Nemtin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary, a jury-chosen prize, at the main awards ceremony held Saturday.
“Someone Lives Here”
“Someone” tells the story of Toronto carpenter Khaleel Seivwright,...
Philippe Falardeau’s “Lac-Mégantic—This Is Not an Accident” topped the overall audience poll to win the 2023 Hot Docs Audience Award. The four-part series from the Oscar-nominated director explores the causes of one of Canada’s worst rail disasters and what’s needed to prevent such accidents in the future.
“Someone Lives Here,” by Zack Russell, won the Rogers Audience Awards for Best Canadian Documentary, which comes with Cdn. $50,000 cash, and also claimed the second-highest spot in the overall audience poll. The film also won the inaugural Bill Nemtin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary, a jury-chosen prize, at the main awards ceremony held Saturday.
“Someone Lives Here”
“Someone” tells the story of Toronto carpenter Khaleel Seivwright,...
- 5/8/2023
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
It’s almost summer in the city, and you might as well rot in the sun with some of the year’s best indie films.
Rooftop Films, one of the longest-running outdoor showcases for indie films globally, has revealed its 2023 lineup, which IndieWire shares exclusively below.
Throughout New York City parks and outdoor landmarks, the Summer Series runs May 25 through August 24 with over 45 events featuring new independent feature films, short film programs, and live performances. Highlights include screenings of Bill Pohlad’s Donnie and Joe Emerson biopic “Dreamin’ Wild,” Savanah Leaf’s A24 drama “Earth Mama,” Eva Longoria’s directing debut “Flamin’ Hot,” and Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo’s “Bobi Wine: The People’s President.”
But you can also catch festival favorites like Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema) winner “Scrapper” from writer-director Charlotte Regan, Laura Moss’s horror entry “birth/rebirth,” D. Smith’s Sundance Award-winning trans documentary “Kokomo City,...
Rooftop Films, one of the longest-running outdoor showcases for indie films globally, has revealed its 2023 lineup, which IndieWire shares exclusively below.
Throughout New York City parks and outdoor landmarks, the Summer Series runs May 25 through August 24 with over 45 events featuring new independent feature films, short film programs, and live performances. Highlights include screenings of Bill Pohlad’s Donnie and Joe Emerson biopic “Dreamin’ Wild,” Savanah Leaf’s A24 drama “Earth Mama,” Eva Longoria’s directing debut “Flamin’ Hot,” and Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo’s “Bobi Wine: The People’s President.”
But you can also catch festival favorites like Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema) winner “Scrapper” from writer-director Charlotte Regan, Laura Moss’s horror entry “birth/rebirth,” D. Smith’s Sundance Award-winning trans documentary “Kokomo City,...
- 5/4/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
By Glenn Charlie Dunks
We are looking at some of the movies playing Canada's beloved HotDocs festival. First up is buzzy Sundance hit, The Stroll.
The conversation around Jennie Livingston's iconic 1990 documentary Paris is Burning has been happening for many years now. The conversation that its white cis director profited financially and professionally from the lives of its black and latinx trans subjects who got very little out of its production. Whatever one thinks of it, it's hard to deny that as much as a film like The Stroll is needed today, it was also needed back then, too. Co-directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker—two women directors who identify as transgender—The Stroll is the continued reclamation of trans stories on screen by those who have lived and breathed the life that it documents.
As you might expect, with this comes a lot of emotions to unpack.
We are looking at some of the movies playing Canada's beloved HotDocs festival. First up is buzzy Sundance hit, The Stroll.
The conversation around Jennie Livingston's iconic 1990 documentary Paris is Burning has been happening for many years now. The conversation that its white cis director profited financially and professionally from the lives of its black and latinx trans subjects who got very little out of its production. Whatever one thinks of it, it's hard to deny that as much as a film like The Stroll is needed today, it was also needed back then, too. Co-directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker—two women directors who identify as transgender—The Stroll is the continued reclamation of trans stories on screen by those who have lived and breathed the life that it documents.
As you might expect, with this comes a lot of emotions to unpack.
- 4/27/2023
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
The festival ran from March 15-26.
Admissions to screenings and events at the 37th edition of the British Film Institute (BFI) Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival, increased by 16% year on year, with 57% of the audience attending for the first time.
Overall, BFI Flare saw 28,923 audience attendances across BFI Southbank screenings, events and on BFI Player, compared to 25,023 attending the BFI Southbank and on BFI player last year.
Over the first four days of the festival, 800 attendees experienced the first BFI Flare Expanded programme, a selection of five immersive art and virtual reality works from boundary-pushing Lgbtqia+ artists working across emerging technologies.
Admissions to screenings and events at the 37th edition of the British Film Institute (BFI) Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival, increased by 16% year on year, with 57% of the audience attending for the first time.
Overall, BFI Flare saw 28,923 audience attendances across BFI Southbank screenings, events and on BFI Player, compared to 25,023 attending the BFI Southbank and on BFI player last year.
Over the first four days of the festival, 800 attendees experienced the first BFI Flare Expanded programme, a selection of five immersive art and virtual reality works from boundary-pushing Lgbtqia+ artists working across emerging technologies.
- 3/29/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Sessions to run from March 27-29.
Six transgender storytellers of colour have been selected for the second edition of Sundance Institute’s Trans Possibilities Intensive programme which runs March 27-29.
The 2023 Fellows are: Seyi Adebanjo, Rajvi Desai, Malik Ever, Nick Janaye, Jamie John, and Tee Park Jaehyung.
Moi Santos will lead the sessions and is founder of the Trans Possibilities Intensive. Leadership includes creative advisors including Sydney Freeland (Drunktown’s Finest), Aitch Alberto (Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe), Félix Endara (Inseen) and Chase Joynt (Framing Agnes), as well as Sundance Institute’s Equity, Impact, and Belonging Program.
Six transgender storytellers of colour have been selected for the second edition of Sundance Institute’s Trans Possibilities Intensive programme which runs March 27-29.
The 2023 Fellows are: Seyi Adebanjo, Rajvi Desai, Malik Ever, Nick Janaye, Jamie John, and Tee Park Jaehyung.
Moi Santos will lead the sessions and is founder of the Trans Possibilities Intensive. Leadership includes creative advisors including Sydney Freeland (Drunktown’s Finest), Aitch Alberto (Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe), Félix Endara (Inseen) and Chase Joynt (Framing Agnes), as well as Sundance Institute’s Equity, Impact, and Belonging Program.
- 3/27/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Outfest Fusion, LA nonprofit Outfest‘s film festival dedicated to queer Bipoc storytelling, has unveiled the full lineup of films for its 20th anniversary festival.
10 features, 93 short films, and four TV presentations will screen during the March festival in Los Angeles, including Sundance documentaries “Little Richard: I Am Everything” and “The Stroll.” Documentary “Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn,” produced by Xpedition and Al Roker, and featuring Lee Daniels, will make its North American premiere during the festival; in total, 23 films will make world premieres, five will make their U.S. premiere, four their international premieres, and three their North American premieres. Over half of all films were directed by women, non-binary, two spirit, or gender-nonconforming filmmakers.
“We are at a moment where our industry is ready to have an honest dialogue about inclusion, investment and representation of people of color and yet our entire LGBTQ+ population is facing a...
10 features, 93 short films, and four TV presentations will screen during the March festival in Los Angeles, including Sundance documentaries “Little Richard: I Am Everything” and “The Stroll.” Documentary “Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn,” produced by Xpedition and Al Roker, and featuring Lee Daniels, will make its North American premiere during the festival; in total, 23 films will make world premieres, five will make their U.S. premiere, four their international premieres, and three their North American premieres. Over half of all films were directed by women, non-binary, two spirit, or gender-nonconforming filmmakers.
“We are at a moment where our industry is ready to have an honest dialogue about inclusion, investment and representation of people of color and yet our entire LGBTQ+ population is facing a...
- 3/15/2023
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
Outfest is gearing up for the 20th anniversary of its Outfest Fusion Qtbipoc Film Festival.
The organization revealed on Tuesday the lineup of films that will screen during the 10-day festival as well as the news that The Inspection filmmaker Elegance Bratton has been selected to receive the Fusion Achievement Award at the opening night gala on March 24.
The honor recognizes “an individual who has made a significant contribution to LGBTQ+ visibility in stories, arts and media,” per Outfest. Bratton has been making the rounds as of late for A24’s The Inspection starring Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union. Inspired by his own story, The Inspection follows a gay Black man who is rejected by his mother and left with few options for his future. He then decides to join the Marines where he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of...
The organization revealed on Tuesday the lineup of films that will screen during the 10-day festival as well as the news that The Inspection filmmaker Elegance Bratton has been selected to receive the Fusion Achievement Award at the opening night gala on March 24.
The honor recognizes “an individual who has made a significant contribution to LGBTQ+ visibility in stories, arts and media,” per Outfest. Bratton has been making the rounds as of late for A24’s The Inspection starring Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union. Inspired by his own story, The Inspection follows a gay Black man who is rejected by his mother and left with few options for his future. He then decides to join the Marines where he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of...
- 3/7/2023
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Outfest has announced its feature lineup for its 2023 Outfest Fusion Qtbipoc Film Festival, which will run from March 24 through April 2.
Outfest Fusion will be celebrating its 20th anniversary by showcasing Lgbtqia+ filmmakers and their various films depicting queer and transgender stories. There will be nine features, including two 2023 Sundance documentaries, “Little Richard: I Am Everything” from Lisa Cortés and “The Stroll” from Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker. Cortés documentary explores how Richard “Little Richard” Penniman worked through his struggles with his sexuality, all while he made his mark on rock n’ roll. While Lovell and Drucker follow transgender women of color as they detail the community’s history of sex work in New York City.
In addition, the Outfest Fusion lineup includes Dawn Mikkelson, Keri Pickett’s “Finding Her Beat;” Fábio Leal’s “Follow The Protocol;” Timothy Harris’ “Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn;” Joseph Amenta’s “Soft;” Lorena Zilleruelo...
Outfest Fusion will be celebrating its 20th anniversary by showcasing Lgbtqia+ filmmakers and their various films depicting queer and transgender stories. There will be nine features, including two 2023 Sundance documentaries, “Little Richard: I Am Everything” from Lisa Cortés and “The Stroll” from Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker. Cortés documentary explores how Richard “Little Richard” Penniman worked through his struggles with his sexuality, all while he made his mark on rock n’ roll. While Lovell and Drucker follow transgender women of color as they detail the community’s history of sex work in New York City.
In addition, the Outfest Fusion lineup includes Dawn Mikkelson, Keri Pickett’s “Finding Her Beat;” Fábio Leal’s “Follow The Protocol;” Timothy Harris’ “Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn;” Joseph Amenta’s “Soft;” Lorena Zilleruelo...
- 3/7/2023
- by Charna Flam
- Variety Film + TV
The queer festival runs from March 15-26.
The BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival (March 15-26) has set its industry programme, including events on queer filmmaking in Nigeria and a spotlight on South Korean films screening at BFI Flare.
‘For Tomorrow: Queer Filmmaking In Nigeria’ invites a delegation of filmmakers creating queer content in Nigeria today to explore what it’s like to create queer cinematic stories in environments that are hostile towards queer people and the barriers to creating film outside of the structures of Nollywood.
This year’s BFI Flare showcases four features and a short (Butch Up!
The BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival (March 15-26) has set its industry programme, including events on queer filmmaking in Nigeria and a spotlight on South Korean films screening at BFI Flare.
‘For Tomorrow: Queer Filmmaking In Nigeria’ invites a delegation of filmmakers creating queer content in Nigeria today to explore what it’s like to create queer cinematic stories in environments that are hostile towards queer people and the barriers to creating film outside of the structures of Nollywood.
This year’s BFI Flare showcases four features and a short (Butch Up!
- 3/1/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Stephen Fry-led doc ‘Willem & Frieda’ to world premiere at BFI Flare; full festival line-up unveiled
The Lgbtqia+ festival takes place March 15-26.
The BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 37th edition which takes place March 15 – 26.
The programme features 58 features, six of which are world premieres, spread across three thematic strands – Hearts, Bodies and Minds.
Scroll down for full line-up
World premiering at the festival is John Hay’s documentary Willem & Frieda which is presented by Stephen Fry and explores how a gay man and a lesbian woman led the anti-Nazi resistance in Holland.
The other world premieres are Timothy Harris’ documentary Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn about the...
The BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 37th edition which takes place March 15 – 26.
The programme features 58 features, six of which are world premieres, spread across three thematic strands – Hearts, Bodies and Minds.
Scroll down for full line-up
World premiering at the festival is John Hay’s documentary Willem & Frieda which is presented by Stephen Fry and explores how a gay man and a lesbian woman led the anti-Nazi resistance in Holland.
The other world premieres are Timothy Harris’ documentary Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn about the...
- 2/15/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Festival
The 37th edition of BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival (March 15-26) will open with Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s Sundance-winning documentary “The Stroll,” which tells the history of New York City’s Meatpacking District from the point of view of the trans women of color who lived and worked there.
Hannes Hirsch’s debut feature, coming-of-age film “Drifter,” fresh off its world premiere at the Berlinale, will close the festival. Tünde Skovrán’s documentary “Who I am Not,” a portrait of the lives of two intersex South Africans and the challenges they face navigating binary sex and gender systems, will be the centerpiece presentation. All filmmakers are expected to be in attendance.
Michael Blyth, BFI Flare’s senior programmer said: “The opening, closing and centerpiece presentations at this year’s BFI Flare offer a fascinating cross section of queer identities, each radically different in both style and content.
The 37th edition of BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival (March 15-26) will open with Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s Sundance-winning documentary “The Stroll,” which tells the history of New York City’s Meatpacking District from the point of view of the trans women of color who lived and worked there.
Hannes Hirsch’s debut feature, coming-of-age film “Drifter,” fresh off its world premiere at the Berlinale, will close the festival. Tünde Skovrán’s documentary “Who I am Not,” a portrait of the lives of two intersex South Africans and the challenges they face navigating binary sex and gender systems, will be the centerpiece presentation. All filmmakers are expected to be in attendance.
Michael Blyth, BFI Flare’s senior programmer said: “The opening, closing and centerpiece presentations at this year’s BFI Flare offer a fascinating cross section of queer identities, each radically different in both style and content.
- 2/7/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The Lgbtqia+ festival runs March 15-25.
Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s documentary The Stroll will open the 37th edition of the BFI’s Lgbtqia+ festival Flare on March 15.
The film will have its international premiere at Flare, after world premiering at Sundance last month where it picked up the US documentary special jury award: clarity of vision.
The Stroll explores the history of New York’s meatpacking district through the eyes of the trans women of colour working there.
Closing the festival on March 25 is the UK premiere of Hannes Hirsch’s debut feature Drifter which follows a recently...
Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s documentary The Stroll will open the 37th edition of the BFI’s Lgbtqia+ festival Flare on March 15.
The film will have its international premiere at Flare, after world premiering at Sundance last month where it picked up the US documentary special jury award: clarity of vision.
The Stroll explores the history of New York’s meatpacking district through the eyes of the trans women of colour working there.
Closing the festival on March 25 is the UK premiere of Hannes Hirsch’s debut feature Drifter which follows a recently...
- 2/7/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
A frank celebration of a pre-Giuliani New York, Kristen Lovell and Zachary Drucker’s The Stroll explores a unique period from the inside. Lovell––an actress, activist, and the producer of the seminal trans film The Garden Left Behind––knows the streets well, and after being the subject of a 2007 documentary about prostitution her eyes were opened to the possibility of one day making a film. In fifteen years, she’s gone from being homeless and sleeping at a Times Square megaplex to debuting her HBO-backed feature in Park City at the nation’s premier indie film festival.
This is a very personal history with those who worked “the stroll.” Or as Lady P tells it: when you have no opportunities you have to go to “the ho show.” The Stroll evokes HBO Documentary Films’ former bread and butter, the American Undercover series, which featured several documentaries by Brent Owens...
This is a very personal history with those who worked “the stroll.” Or as Lady P tells it: when you have no opportunities you have to go to “the ho show.” The Stroll evokes HBO Documentary Films’ former bread and butter, the American Undercover series, which featured several documentaries by Brent Owens...
- 1/31/2023
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
In The Stroll, the gentrification of New York City’s Meatpacking District is told through the history of the trans sex workers who long worked and resided in the neighborhood. Through extensive archival materials and intimate interviews, co-directors Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker explore how police violence factored into the downfall of “The Stroll” where this community would congregate. Editor Mel Mel Sukekawa-Mooring discusses cutting the film, also touching on the “roundabout journey” that brought them to the industry. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your […]
The post “When a Place Is Transformed and Scrubbed, so Are the Original Memories”: Editor Mel Mel Sukekawa-Mooring on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “When a Place Is Transformed and Scrubbed, so Are the Original Memories”: Editor Mel Mel Sukekawa-Mooring on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/29/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
In The Stroll, the gentrification of New York City’s Meatpacking District is told through the history of the trans sex workers who long worked and resided in the neighborhood. Through extensive archival materials and intimate interviews, co-directors Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker explore how police violence factored into the downfall of “The Stroll” where this community would congregate. Editor Mel Mel Sukekawa-Mooring discusses cutting the film, also touching on the “roundabout journey” that brought them to the industry. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your […]
The post “When a Place Is Transformed and Scrubbed, so Are the Original Memories”: Editor Mel Mel Sukekawa-Mooring on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “When a Place Is Transformed and Scrubbed, so Are the Original Memories”: Editor Mel Mel Sukekawa-Mooring on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/29/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
There’s an eyebrow-raising moment in The Stroll — a simultaneously celebratory and elegiac documentary for HBO about the transgender sex workers that once walked New York City’s Meatpacking District — made more scathing because it involves an ostensible ally. It’s a grainy ‘80s video snippet in which RuPaul sashays down 14th Street pretending to interview what in the parlance of the day were known as “transvestite hookers,” but really making them the butt of one big condescending, classist joke.
The insensitivity of the clip is especially jarring because of the first-hand stories we’ve been hearing of the harsh reality of “the life” — of women shunned by their families, refused legal employment, subjected to violence, homelessness, racism, police harassment, brutality and repeated arrest, often by the same officers forcing them to have sex. Not to mention that trans and nonbinary people for years were shut out by gay men...
The insensitivity of the clip is especially jarring because of the first-hand stories we’ve been hearing of the harsh reality of “the life” — of women shunned by their families, refused legal employment, subjected to violence, homelessness, racism, police harassment, brutality and repeated arrest, often by the same officers forcing them to have sex. Not to mention that trans and nonbinary people for years were shut out by gay men...
- 1/28/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 2023 Sundance Film Festival, the festival’s first in-person competition since 2020, has revealed its award winners.
The big winners included Maryam Keshavarz‘s The Persian Version, which earned both the Audience Award and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and A.V. Rockwell‘s A Thousand and One, which took home the Grand Jury Prize in the same category.
The Persian Version explores an Iranian-American family’s past as its patriarch gets a heart transplant while A Thousand and One centers around a mother who kidnaps her son from the foster care system in order to find a path toward redemption.
Other winners include Festival Favorite Radical directed by Christopher Zalla and Grand Jury Prize winner for U.S. Documentary, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.
The festival has highlighted 101 different features and 64 shorts. These films were selected from a total of 15,856 submissions. Most of...
The big winners included Maryam Keshavarz‘s The Persian Version, which earned both the Audience Award and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and A.V. Rockwell‘s A Thousand and One, which took home the Grand Jury Prize in the same category.
The Persian Version explores an Iranian-American family’s past as its patriarch gets a heart transplant while A Thousand and One centers around a mother who kidnaps her son from the foster care system in order to find a path toward redemption.
Other winners include Festival Favorite Radical directed by Christopher Zalla and Grand Jury Prize winner for U.S. Documentary, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.
The festival has highlighted 101 different features and 64 shorts. These films were selected from a total of 15,856 submissions. Most of...
- 1/28/2023
- by Alex Nguyen
- Uinterview
A Thousand and OneU.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeA Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell)Directing PrizeSing J. Lee (The Accidental Getaway Driver)Audience Award The Persian Version (Maryam Keshavarz)Special Jury Award: ActingLio Mehiel (Mutt)Special Jury Award: Creative VisionMagazine Dreams (Elijah Bynum)Special Jury Award: Ensemble CastTheater Camp (Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardMaryam Keshavarz (The Persian Version)
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson)Directing Prize Luke Lorentzen (A Still Small Voice) Audience Award Beyond Utopia (Madeleine Gavin)Jonathan Oppenheim Editing AwardDaniela I. Quiroz (Going Varsity in Mariachi)Special Jury Award for Freedom of ExpressionBad Press (Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler)Special Jury Award: Clarity of VisionThe Stroll (Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker)
ScrapperWORLD Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Scrapper (Charlotte Regan)Directing Prize Marija Kavtaradze (Slow)Audience AwardShayda (Noora Niasari)Special Jury...
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson)Directing Prize Luke Lorentzen (A Still Small Voice) Audience Award Beyond Utopia (Madeleine Gavin)Jonathan Oppenheim Editing AwardDaniela I. Quiroz (Going Varsity in Mariachi)Special Jury Award for Freedom of ExpressionBad Press (Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler)Special Jury Award: Clarity of VisionThe Stroll (Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker)
ScrapperWORLD Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Scrapper (Charlotte Regan)Directing Prize Marija Kavtaradze (Slow)Audience AwardShayda (Noora Niasari)Special Jury...
- 1/27/2023
- MUBI
Back in Park City, Utah, for the first time since 2020, the Sundance Film Festival concluded with an in-person awards show. The U.S. dramatic grand jury prize went to the Focus Features release “A Thousand and One,” from debut writer-director A.V. Rockwell, one of eight women in this year’s female-led competition.
Jeremy O. Harris, a member of the three-person U.S. dramatic jury at Sundance, choked back tears as he presented the award to Rockwell, admitting that he left the director’s premiere screening and cried on the street, as the film unearthed “all the feelings I’ve learned to mask in public spaces.”
Rockwell’s film is set in an unforgiving New York City in the late ’90s, where a single mother moving from shelter to shelter kidnaps her 6-year-old son from foster care. As they improbably forge a life and bond, their darkest secret threatens to disrupt what they’ve built.
Jeremy O. Harris, a member of the three-person U.S. dramatic jury at Sundance, choked back tears as he presented the award to Rockwell, admitting that he left the director’s premiere screening and cried on the street, as the film unearthed “all the feelings I’ve learned to mask in public spaces.”
Rockwell’s film is set in an unforgiving New York City in the late ’90s, where a single mother moving from shelter to shelter kidnaps her 6-year-old son from foster care. As they improbably forge a life and bond, their darkest secret threatens to disrupt what they’ve built.
- 1/27/2023
- by Matt Donnelly and Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
As the first in-person Sundance Film Festival since 2020 draws to a close, it’s time to see which films are taking home the festival’s most coveted awards. While there are many ways to measure success at Sundance — and many filmmakers are certainly more interested in a big sale than a trophy — the awards are nevertheless an important way of measuring which films resonated with the Park City crowd.
Friday’s award ceremony is the culmination of what has already been a very eventful festival. Despite the multitude of changes that the independent film world and the streaming industry are currently undergoing, this year’s festival still featured its share of buzzy premieres and splashy acquisitions. One of the most talked about movies in Park City has been Chloe Domont’s erotic thriller “Fair Play,” which sold to Netflix for a reported price of 20 million. The festival also featured some...
Friday’s award ceremony is the culmination of what has already been a very eventful festival. Despite the multitude of changes that the independent film world and the streaming industry are currently undergoing, this year’s festival still featured its share of buzzy premieres and splashy acquisitions. One of the most talked about movies in Park City has been Chloe Domont’s erotic thriller “Fair Play,” which sold to Netflix for a reported price of 20 million. The festival also featured some...
- 1/27/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
The gentrification of New York’s Meatpacking District is told through the eyes of the trans women of color who lived and worked there in the nonfiction feature The Stroll. Once a go-to destination for sex workers to meet with clients, the neighborhood has become increasingly sanitized and corporate. In witnessing gentrification unfold due to increased policing and rampant development, directors Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker chart a neighborhood’s decline by way of its “up-and-coming” nature. Dp Sara Kinney discusses first meeting The Stroll‘s co-director Drucker when they were teenagers, using a plethora of archival images and the enormous compliment of […]
The post “These Same Street Corners Have Evolved Into Something Almost Unrecognizable”: Dp Sara Kinney on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “These Same Street Corners Have Evolved Into Something Almost Unrecognizable”: Dp Sara Kinney on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/27/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The gentrification of New York’s Meatpacking District is told through the eyes of the trans women of color who lived and worked there in the nonfiction feature The Stroll. Once a go-to destination for sex workers to meet with clients, the neighborhood has become increasingly sanitized and corporate. In witnessing gentrification unfold due to increased policing and rampant development, directors Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker chart a neighborhood’s decline by way of its “up-and-coming” nature. Dp Sara Kinney discusses first meeting The Stroll‘s co-director Drucker when they were teenagers, using a plethora of archival images and the enormous compliment of […]
The post “These Same Street Corners Have Evolved Into Something Almost Unrecognizable”: Dp Sara Kinney on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “These Same Street Corners Have Evolved Into Something Almost Unrecognizable”: Dp Sara Kinney on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/27/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
You’d never know it from the sleek glass Apple store and velvet rope hotel clubs that stand there now, but New York’s Meatpacking District was once a hub for Black and brown trans women to earn an honest living. Even if you know your history, it can be hard to conjure an image of fabulous heeled goddesses walking the cobblestone streets now littered with luxury retail stores. For the ones who lived it, the experience is even more disorienting. That’s one of the bittersweet revelations present in “The Stroll,” a hauntingly poignant documentary that attempts to excavate and preserve that fractured history — while those who lived it are still here.
Directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker, “The Stroll” is The film takes its title from the block of 14th street between Ninth Avenue and the Hudson River where many once found their trade, which the gals called The Stroll.
Directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker, “The Stroll” is The film takes its title from the block of 14th street between Ninth Avenue and the Hudson River where many once found their trade, which the gals called The Stroll.
- 1/24/2023
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
“I am my own liberation,” declares one of the participants in “The Stroll,” and the same could be said for everyone in this moving documentary — especially co-director Kristen Lovell, who was inspired by her own life to memorialize a time, place and experience that has been forgotten at best and vilified at worst.
If your primary images of New York’s Meatpacking District come from “Sex and the City” or shopping trips, you may not remember the neighborhood around West 14th Street before gentrification. As a longtime resident explains, “The S&m bars, the hookers, the meatpackers. That’s what was down here.” Yes, it really was home to meatpacking plants by day, before sex workers took over at night. Many of the latter were trans women of color, and these are the women Lovell and co-director Zackary Drucker (“The Lady and the Dale”) aim to honor.
Lovell’s intimate...
If your primary images of New York’s Meatpacking District come from “Sex and the City” or shopping trips, you may not remember the neighborhood around West 14th Street before gentrification. As a longtime resident explains, “The S&m bars, the hookers, the meatpackers. That’s what was down here.” Yes, it really was home to meatpacking plants by day, before sex workers took over at night. Many of the latter were trans women of color, and these are the women Lovell and co-director Zackary Drucker (“The Lady and the Dale”) aim to honor.
Lovell’s intimate...
- 1/24/2023
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
While most awards season hits debut in the fall to stay fresh in voters’ minds, there’s a growing group of successful films that doesn’t rely on this strategy: Sundance premieres focusing on underrepresented communities.
After 2009’s inner-city drama “Precious” picked up best adapted screenplay and supporting actress Oscars, several other films have made the year-long journey from Park City to the Academy Awards. Among them, 2010’s lesbian mom comedy “The Kids Are All Right,” 2012’s bayou fantasia “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” 2017’s racism thriller “Get Out” and 2020’s South Korean immigrant drama “Minari.” The fest’s 2021 hearing-impaired family saga “Coda” nabbed a best picture Oscar, and while no comparable hit emerged from last year’s virtual fest, the surprise smash “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is pulling off a similar hat trick. Since its March 11 SXSW premiere, the story of a Chinese-American immigrant family told with sci-fi,...
After 2009’s inner-city drama “Precious” picked up best adapted screenplay and supporting actress Oscars, several other films have made the year-long journey from Park City to the Academy Awards. Among them, 2010’s lesbian mom comedy “The Kids Are All Right,” 2012’s bayou fantasia “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” 2017’s racism thriller “Get Out” and 2020’s South Korean immigrant drama “Minari.” The fest’s 2021 hearing-impaired family saga “Coda” nabbed a best picture Oscar, and while no comparable hit emerged from last year’s virtual fest, the surprise smash “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is pulling off a similar hat trick. Since its March 11 SXSW premiere, the story of a Chinese-American immigrant family told with sci-fi,...
- 1/20/2023
- by Gregg Goldstein
- Variety Film + TV
HBO Documentary Films has unveiled an official first clip from Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s “The Stroll” as well as a new poster for the film, which documents the history of New York City’s Meatpacking District.
“The Stroll” will world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 23 and debuts later this year on HBO and HBO Max. The film tells the story of an important part of Manhattan through the lens of transgender women of color — a demographic whose livelihood was heavily impacted by the escalation of police harassment and gentrification in the region.
Having moved to New York City in the 1990s, Lovell describes in the clip how she witnessed many trans women soliciting sexual favors in a portion of the district known as “The Stroll.” Those encounters inspired her to consider how sex work is rooted in the legacy of trans women and made her...
“The Stroll” will world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 23 and debuts later this year on HBO and HBO Max. The film tells the story of an important part of Manhattan through the lens of transgender women of color — a demographic whose livelihood was heavily impacted by the escalation of police harassment and gentrification in the region.
Having moved to New York City in the 1990s, Lovell describes in the clip how she witnessed many trans women soliciting sexual favors in a portion of the district known as “The Stroll.” Those encounters inspired her to consider how sex work is rooted in the legacy of trans women and made her...
- 1/20/2023
- by Katie Reul
- Variety Film + TV
A documentary on Little Richard, a reexamination of the history of the Meatpacking District through the lens of trans sex workers, the film adaptation of a viral short story, and more will premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
The U.S. Documentary competition will boast the world premiere of Lisa Cortés’ Little Richard: I Am Everything. The film will simultaneously chronicle the career of the titular rock and roll pioneer while examining the genre’s Black queer origins in an effort to counterbalance the whitewashed history of American pop.
Somewhat similarly,...
The U.S. Documentary competition will boast the world premiere of Lisa Cortés’ Little Richard: I Am Everything. The film will simultaneously chronicle the career of the titular rock and roll pioneer while examining the genre’s Black queer origins in an effort to counterbalance the whitewashed history of American pop.
Somewhat similarly,...
- 12/7/2022
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
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