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This pride month, HBO is all set to release The Stroll, a documentary highlighting the history of New York City's Meatpacking District from the perspective of transgender s*x workers. The documentary will stream live on HBO and HBO Max on June 21, 2023. It had its world premiere earlier this year at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2023. The duration of the documentary is 1 hour 40 minutes.
Here's the official trailer for The Stroll (2023):
The documentary is directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker, representing the LGBTQ community, best known for Random Acts of Flyness (2018) and She Gone Rogue (2012), respectively. The inspiration for the film comes from Kristen Lovell's personal experiences as a s*x worker in the 1990s in New York City, where she chose the profession as a last resort upon being rejected by other job opportunities since she was a transwoman.
The Stroll on HBO: A look inside HBO's upcoming documentary on NYC's Fourteenth Street
As per HBO's official website, the inspiration for the film comes from Kristen Lovell's personal experiences when she first moved to New York City and began working as a s*x worker upon being fired from a coffee shop as she transitioned into a transwoman. It reads,
"Like many transgender women of color during this era (1990s), Kristen Lovell began s*x 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."
It continues reading,
"Reuniting her sisters to tell this essential New York story from their first-hand experiences, 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."
In the trailer, we can see the hosts, including the director, Kristen Lovell herself, navigate through the fourteenth street known as "The Stroll," interviewing 11 trans women who worked there for periods ranging from 2 to 25 years.
Here, they shared their horrible experiences and how they often faced discrimination as trans people of color by both the residents and their clients, who ended up misusing them. The trailer also calls out the media houses of the 80s that often quoted them as "criminals," playing a significant role in their otherization.
Their testimonies include tales of being accused of murder, being arrested by cops who took their services, being dragged by cars for half a block, being pushed out of the neighborhood, and also being assaulted but refused treatment at the hospital, and much more.
Despite the shared trauma, the community essentially bands together to fight for equal treatment and respect and refuses to speak of s*x work with shame or stigma. Members from these communities also share their journey of protesting for their equal rights. In the trailer, one of them says,
"The system never gave us resources, we created the resources."
The Stroll garners positive response post-Sundance Film Festival debut
The HBO documentary, which first premiered on January 23, 2023, at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, garnered a positive response from film critics. It has a rating of 7.7/10 on IMDB and 8.2/10 on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Stroll is now streaming live on HBO and HBO Max
