The Stroll, an HBO documentary about the history of New York City’s Meatpacking District as viewed by transsexual s*x workers, will air during Pride Month.
The documentary will air live on HBO and HBO Max on June 21, 2023. On January 23, 2023, it made its international debut at the Sundance Film Festival. The film is one hour and forty minutes long.
The official trailer for The Stroll (2023) is as follows:
The documentary is directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker, two LGBTQ individuals who are best known for the movies She Gone Rogue (2012) and Random Acts of Flyness (2018), respectively. The movie is based on Kristen Lovell’s actual experiences working in the sex industry in New York City in the 1990s, when she turned to it as a last resort after being turned down for other jobs because of her gender identification.
A look inside the upcoming HBO documentary The Stroll about New York City’s 14th Street
According to the HBO website, Kristen Lovell’s actual experiences when she first moved to New York City and began working as a s*x worker after being fired from a coffee shop due to her transition into a transwoman served as the inspiration for the movie. It reads:
“Kristen Lovell began sex work in an area known as The Stroll in the Meatpacking District of lower Manhattan, where trans women congregated and forged a deep camaraderie to protect each other from harassment and violence, like many transgender women of color during this time (the 1990s).”
The text continues,
“Kristen’s intimate narration and interviews bring an astonishing array of archival material of bygone New York from the 1970s through the early 2000s to life,” writes Kristen. “Reuniting her sisters to tell this essential New York story from their first-hand experiences.”
In the teaser, the interviewers—among them the filmmaker Kristen Lovell—can be seen walking the 14th street, often known as “The Stroll,” while speaking with 11 trans women who have worked there for periods of time ranging from 2 to 25 years.
They discussed their awful encounters and how, as trans people of color, they frequently faced prejudice from both their neighbors and their clients, who ultimately took advantage of them. The media of the 1980s, which frequently referred to them as “criminals,” adding considerably to their otherization, are also criticized in the trailer.
Their claims include, among other things, being accused of murder, being held by officers who used their services, being pulled by cars for half a block, being driven away, and being battered but not given medical attention at the hospital.
Despite the shared sorrow, the group comes together to fight for fairness and respect and refuses to talk about sex work in a shameful or stigmatized way. Members of these groups also talk about the protests they have participated in to demand equal rights. In the teaser, one of them says,
“Resources were never given to us by the system; they were created by us.”
After its Sundance Film Festival debut, The Stroll received positive reviews. Reviewers gave the HBO documentary rave reviews when it made its Sundance Film Festival debut on January 23, 2023. It has an 8.2/10 Rotten Tomatoes rating and a 7.7/10 IMDB rating.
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