HBO has released the official trailer for the forthcoming documentary film, The Stroll.
The film is Kristen Lovell’s directorial debut and had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim.
When Kristen moved to New York City in the 1990s and began to transition, she was fired from her job.
With so few options to earn money to survive, Kristen, like many transgender women of color during this era, 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.
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.
As much as The Stroll is a film about transgender life, it is also a startling account of gentrification, as New York City Mayor Giuliani enacted “quality of life” initiatives that ramped up policing in the city and pushed the sex workers out of the neighborhood.
Despite the forces that threatened their survival, Kristen and her sisters fought back.
They no longer have The Stroll, but they are at the center of a movement to protect their rights; activists recently reversed legislation dubbed “Walking While Trans,” which enabled police profiling and harassment of transgender people for decades.
In this new era of visibility and activism, The Stroll reminds us that trans women of color and sex workers continue to forge a path forward, thriving through their resilience, community organizing, and sisterhood.
The Stroll debuts on Wednesday, June 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and it will be available to stream on Max.
Watch the trailer below.
Do you plan to add the documentary to your June Watch List?
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