Walking 'The Stroll': Documenting Transgender Sex Work In Manhattan's Meatpacking District
Just one week ago, on the eve of June 5th, 2023, I had the pleasure of attending the incredibly powerful NYC premiere of Kristen Lovell (@kplgrams) & Zackary Drucker’s (@zackarydrucker) groundbreaking documentary film, The Stroll. It was screened outside, right on the streets of Gansevoort Plaza in the heart of Manhattan’s Meatpacking District.
The Stroll is titled after the stretch of 14th Street between 9th Avenue & the Hudson River where for decades trans women, primarily of color, turned to sex work as a means of survival. The film explores the history of NYC's Meatpacking District through the eyes of these transgender women who both lived & worked there.
Co-directed by Kristen Lovell, who walked “The Stroll” for a decade herself, & Zackary Drucker, the film brings together the women of The Stroll past & present with a camaraderie & care that is both moving & striking. Many of the film's stars were present at the event & were able to tell their powerful stories of perseverance & plight, including the likes of the legendary Egyptt LaBeija (@javonegyptt), Overall Godmother of the House of LaBeija, who performed live before the film premiered.
As much as The Stroll is about transgender life, it is also a startling account of gentrification. The film shows the relentless police harassment that trans sex workers faced, particularly during the Giuliani era, & how the "quality of life" policies he enacted laid the groundwork for the rampant gentrification of the Meatpacking District that pushed them out of the neighborhood. Being able to watch the film surrounded by the luxury retail stores like Hermès, Christian Louboutin, & Belstaff that now line the neighborhood streets as a result of this gentrification was truly an earth shattering experience.
The film features an incredible amount of archival footage & photography of The Stroll over the decades, including powerful segments featuring Sylvia Rivera & Marsha P. Johnson. One of the film’s essential and unique components is director Kristen Lovell herself, who moved to New York City in the 1990s but was fired from her job when she began to transition. Like most transgender women of color from that time period, Lovell began sex working in the Meatpacking District neighborhood to survive, and while there, she forged bonds with other trans sisters to help protect one another from harassment and violence.
Having a trans woman of color behind the camera, particularly one who walked The Stroll herself, provides a powerful lens to the film. It allots the subjects in the film a level of comfort and ease to tell their own stories, because when on camera they are telling it conversationally to one of their own. It makes for a level of candidness and vulnerability that might not be otherwise unearthed were these trans women simply subjects and pawns in some other outsider’s film. Additionally, by celebrating each of these women’s humanity and unique spirit in the film without minimizing their hardships, “The Stroll” feels markedly different than what’s come before it. The film opens with Lovell reviewing footage of her younger self in a 2007 film called Queer Streets: “My mission is to tell this story before we’re gone,” she says, while now firmly seated in the director’s chair. “I feel like I could get it right, if I was the one to tell it.”
Felix Rodriguez (@felixrod711), who also attended the screening, remarked: “I was there too. Loved it.”
Alan Barrows (@alan_barrows) commented : “🙌👏👏👏❤️ I remember this area as I was there often for the nightclubs in the neighborhood back then.”
Lauren Pine (@lurleenp) left an insightful message: “I love this and yet also as a white person coming from [a] place of privilege I was also sadly part of that gentrification. Even though I lived below 14th St. and went to downtown clubs, and was living on a shoestring, I was also unwittingly displacing BIPOC families and businesses. And though I have fond memories, I am also learning that a lot of what I disliked, I was also riding on the coattails of. I do love seeing Kristen bring this world to light. We briefly met at a screening of Pay It No Mind, and went to Julius’ afterward, and I have followed her here ever since.”
The Stroll is scheduled to be released on June 21, 2023, streaming on HBO. Watch the trailer for it below.