The Stroll review: A powerful, timely, and must-see documentary

When the subject of representation comes up, there is often a focus, certainly from an LGBTQ perspective, on ensuring that trans voices are heard. That trans stories are told and are done so authentically.

The Stroll, then, is a prime example of how powerful it can be when those things come together to tell a story that many have already tried to erase.

Fresh from Sundance Film Festival, The Stroll tells the at times joyous and heartwarming stories of the transwomen who worked as sex workers on 14th Street in New York City’s Meatpacking District.

It also tells of the heartbreaking anguish many of them faced on a daily basis, the persecution, the stigma, and more.

Directors Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s film shows us what a true community is. “The girls stuck with one another,” one of the interviewees says. That is one of the things that shines through the most in this mesmerising documentary.

There is a strength and power that is undeniable, even in the face of horrific oppression. The girls of ‘The Stroll’ were (and are) a family, they looked out for one another, took care of each other, celebrated, and at times, mourned together.

Anchoring The Stroll is director/narrator/interviewer Kristen Lovell, who worked 14th and Christopher streets herself from the 90s to the early noughties. Some of her sisters worked it longer, some less. One started as young as 15.

Through Lovell’s eyes, we see what was known as ‘The Stroll’ then and now. Extensive archival footage, photographs, and lively animations bring the stories of Lovell and her sisters to life. While footage from the modern day captures a district completely transformed through years of gentrification into a landscape that many of the women find unrecognisable.

“The context in which the film has been made is also hard to ignore”

Ceyenne, Lady P, Brenda, and Cecillia are among the colourful array of characters who recount their lived experiences on ‘The Stroll’. From chasing down ‘johns’ and fending off unruly customers to the brutal techniques of the NYPD, including one officer who sought the services of one of the girls before arresting her once they were done.

The girls remember hiding under lorries and behind bins to evade capture by police. They remember police cars chasing them on the pavements. And they remember the circumstances which pushed them into sex work as trans women. The reality is never too far away and the opposite of airbrushed out.

The Stroll documents these women’s lives in every aspect. It includes the role many of them played, and still do, in activism for the LGBTQ community. The despair they and people like Sylvia Rivera, brought to life in stunning footage, felt at fighting for the gay community, but getting nothing in return.

The context in which the film has been made is also hard to ignore. As anti-LGBTQ, specifically, anti-trans legislation and rhetoric, continues to build on both sides of the Atlantic, stories like these are more important than ever.

This timely film cannot come highly recommended enough.

5/5

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