The lives of four Black transgender sex workers, based in Atlanta and New York, are vibrantly captured in D Smith’s spirited and defiantly upbeat documentary. Borrowing the brash visual language of rap videos, and shooting in striking black and white (accented with punchy neon yellow fonts), this is showy, irreverent film-making. It’s an assertive style that, in other circumstances, could overshadow the subject matter. But the central characters – Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell and Dominique Silver – are feisty, funny and more than a match for the swagger of the directing style.
For all the exaggerated winks in the music choices and provocative shots of beautifully lit buttocks, the film is an open and celebratory space in which the women can tell their stories. Some of them are hilarious, others bruising, all are painfully forthright about the all-too-real dangers they face. The film is dedicated to Koko Da Doll, who was murdered two months after it premiered at Sundance in January.
