Kokomo City (Film Review)

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn't exist.

Kokomo City is a talking heads documentary with lofty ambitions, especially for a debut director in D. Smith. Presenting the stories of four black transgender sex workers (Liyah Mitchell, Dominique Silver, Daniella Carter and Koko Da Doll) in New York and Atlanta, it's an effort to show tremendous nuance in intersectionality, touching on issues of race, gender, sexuality and class through four distinct first-hand lenses. We also meet a number of cis-gendered men who, in one way or another, have come into contact with the four women that the documentary is primarily about. The result is a rich documentary with a compelling group of people at its heart, sharing very personal stories and perspectives that are shaped by their various identities.

The tone of Kokomo City is set without any hesitation. It opens with a simple shot of Liyah Mitchell sitting in what looks like a fairly standard hotel room. She's recalling a story of when she first started her career in sex work through an encounter that becomes emblematic of her experiences in the field. There's no chance that any summary of her story will do it justice, so there isn't any point in providing one, but it's an anxiety-inducing tale of chaos which she tells with great humour. That's the thread that runs through the entire runtime of Kokomo City – the lives that these women lead are full of anxiety-inducing chaos for no fault of their own. What makes this such an endearing documentary, though, is the humour and charm with which they're willing to share that.

Things get more personal when we begin meeting people who are essentially outsiders to this world. They may be partners, friends, or just cis men who describe themselves as “trans-attracted”, but they all offer a perspective that gives us a fuller picture of the life experiences of these women. By hearing first-hand what other people think of them, it becomes so much easier to relate to just how much strength it requires for them to live the lives they've ended up with. Even the people who accept them seem to fall short of understanding them, and it's evident through how much they're categorised and othered in such casual language.

Dominique Silver recounts a background of violence against her identity as a trans woman. Her stories are presented exactly as she tells them, without commentary or any leading narrative. One particular story about an oral sex encounter feels especially raw, and features a line that perhaps gives an insight into how crushingly normalised such a threat is for her – “Violence doesn't happen before the orgasm, it happens after.”

Some of the most tender and eye-opening moments come when we're given the privilege to observe these women in the moments when they aren't expected to be presenting anything to the outside world, though. One of them is when Daniella Carter is alone in a bathroom, performing a skincare regime. She repeatedly affirms to herself in the mirror that she is who she thinks she is, and gives us a glimpse into the more mundane aspects of what it means to be a trans woman.

Perhaps the most important aspect of it all is its director, D. Smith. The reason she's able to pull off such a thoughtfully nuanced film about the intersectional struggles that Kokomo City presents is that she's part of those intersections herself. As a black trans woman, she's able to present the story of the women in the film as something that feels like the whole story, because a good part of it is her story too.

Kokomo City is a slender documentary which presents its subjects as their most authentic and natural selves. It isn't interested in selling a story to us, or in crafting a compelling narrative out of real people's lives. It simply gives us an insight into real people who exist, giving a spotlight to their stories from within the communities that they come from.

Dogwoof will release KOKOMO CITY in UK & Irish cinemas 4th August 2023