Kokomo City
D. Smith’s outspoken documentary gives the floor to four transgender sex workers.
This may be a documentary film but it bears all the marks of being an auteur’s movie. The person whose signature is all over this film – and she is indeed its director, photographer, editor and co-producer – is D. Smith making her cinema debut. Kokomo City is the work of an insider for Smith, also an established singer/songwriter, is a black trans woman and her film features four such women talking about their lives. Two of them – Liyah Mitchell and Koko Da Doll - were found in Atlanta, Georgia while the other two, Daniella Carter and Dominique Silver, live in New York, but all four are sassy, invigorating and unabashed when talking about their lives as sex workers.
Although that work is a central focus here, it is less easy than you might expect to pinpoint where the film’s heart lies. It is, of course, a crucial aspect of it that it can be seen as a platform for trans women to express themselves, an endeavour set up by Smith and relished by the film’s four key figures. Its focus extends to supplementary footage in which a number of men who find trans women sexually appealing express their feelings about it. These comments prove to be markedly different. They range from a man who is ready to admit that attraction but is too uneasy to act on it to one who in this context has achieved an intimate, loving relationship; others simply encourage those who feel that way to go for it. We meet too a man in Atlanta who promotes a regular club event featuring trans dancers, be that down to a wish to provide a recognised place for those seeking such a venue or to finding profit in it. The women themselves talk of the many johns who indulge secretly often deceiving their wives in the process. Their uncensored comments also distinguish between men who visit them drawn by the appeal of a woman with a penis and those who deliberately ignore any such appendage.
The film’s second level is related to the fact that the trans women featured here are all black. This means that their lives are affected by transphobia and by racial prejudice and that they can speak with an insider’s awareness of the weight on black men to adopt an assertive, protective role which then makes it difficult for them to acknowledge any form of non-macho sexuality. As for the four women themselves, their stories emphasise the fact that being black and trans can be a major problem when it comes to finding it difficult to obtain employment thus leading to a situation in which prostitution often becomes accepted as a means of survival.
Given that all of the featured quartet are or have been involved in prostitution, it could also be said that the world of the prostitute is a dominant concern here. Indeed, a pre-credit sequence introducing us to Liyah Mitchell finds her telling about an unnerving occasion when she realised that she had a client who was armed with a gun and feared for her life. The pay-off to this story of hers is very different from what one is expecting and it could be seen as a pointer to the approach that Kokomo City is taking about prostitution. Most films that are serious in nature and focus on this world take very full account of the dangers of this life including the risk of exploitation. Smith’s film certainly does not ignore this aspect even if Liyah’s opening narrative concludes less violently than one might be expecting. Indeed, mention is made later on of two women who were murdered. Furthermore, after the film was completed one of the key contributors, Koko Da Doll, was herself shot dead. But, if Kokomo City never conceals the fact that prostitution is indeed risky work, Smith's prime intention in this context is to stress the courage of her four subjects and to admire them for their determination in their fight to survive.
But, while all of these elements are present in this documentary, the essential character of the piece is best gauged through Smith’s chosen approach as director. The energy and spirit of the four trans women at its centre are what is being celebrated here, along with due recognition that these qualities represent defiance in the face of whatever faces them, however dark. It’s that which makes the tone of the piece feel so apt. That intention is consistently reflected in the lively character of the film itself which declares its hand as soon as the title comes up accompanied by Randy Crawford’s stirring rendition of ‘Street Life’. Other songs are heard at intervals on the soundtrack and the tales told by the women are frequently illustrated by intercut snatches of re-enactments and even, on occasion, animated images. This is the kind of thing which I often dislike in a documentary because it can feel unreal. But here - and right down to added effects such as gunshots on the soundtrack - it all plays as part and parcel of the consistently energising approach that has been signalled initially in the credit titles when the four leading participants are described as starring in this film. Smith is also responsible for the photography which, unexpectedly but splendidly, is in black-and-white offering images of real quality and adding a distinctly erotic touch when flesh is viewed. And that brings me to the final and vital point about Kokomo City. It not only presents trans women who are comfortable being themselves and at ease with their bodies but it takes a stance that is strongly pro-sexual. Be yourself, love whoever you love and, provided that nobody is hurt in the process, nothing can ever be wrong with that. Ultimately that is the message that D. Smith sends and it outweighs everything else here.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell, Dominique Silver, Michael Carlos Jones, Lexx Pharaoh, INW Tarxan, Lenox Love, Xotommy, Rich-Paris, Bebé Smith.
Dir D. Smith, Pro D. Smith, Harris Doran and Bill Butler, Ph D. Smith, Ed D. Smith.
Couchpotatoe Pictures/Madison Square Films-Dogwoof Releasing.
73 mins. USA. 2023. UK Rel: 4 August 2023. Cert. 18.
