qmunicate were absolutely delighted to be invited by SQIFF (the Scottish Queer International Film Festival) to attend some of this year’s screenings. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the SQIFF team for this amazing opportunity and congratulate them on organizing such a thought-provoking and memorable event.
Eve Connor examines D. Smith’s directorial debut, Kokomo City, a poignant documentary that intimately portrays the lives of four transfeminine sex workers in America. Fergus Kane offers an insightful analysis of cult queer director Gregg Araki, focusing on his 1997 film Nowhere which was screened at the festival. Additionally, my own review delves into the profoundly moving and dangerously funny world of trans identity in Thatcherite Britain in Kristiene Clark’s masterful documentary Sex Change Shock! Horror! Probe!.
Ailbhe Ni Mhurchu
Film and Television Editor
Kokomo City (2023) dir. D. Smith
Few documentary films are as engaging as D. Smith’s Kokomo City (2023), which spotlights the experiences of four Black transfeminine sex workers in New York and Georgia: Dominique Silver, Daniella Carter, Liyah Mitchell, and Koko Da Doll. With a runtime of just over an hour, the collection of intimate interviews grabs the audience’s attention and refuses to loosen its grip.
D. Smith, a former Grammy-nominated music producer who was ostracised from the music industry after coming out as trans in 2014, proves herself an adept filmmaker with her first foray into the business, producing, directing, and editing Kokomo City. The film is shot entirely in black and white. Yet rather than leaving the audience with a feeling of unreality and disconnection, the monochromatic colour palette strips back any pretense, reinforcing the rawness and honesty of the documentary’s subjects. And the film does feel brutally honest. Smith refuses to languish entirely in the trauma the women have experienced; there is much joy to be found – Dominique, Daniella, Liyah, and Koko Da Doll have ample opportunity to show off their razor-sharp wits. And yet she does not shy away from the harsh truth of their lifestyles. The first scene, in which Liyah lies across her bed recounting an experience with a client, fizzes with energy. She’s charismatic; the audience laughs. Smith’s choice of music adds verve and a buoyant pace. Then the music stops. The story takes a turn. The client had a gun. The audience, most of whom may never have experienced such a degree of violence, are not allowed to be lulled into a state of comfort. The transition is abrupt, and it is the first example of Smith’s unapologetically bold vision for the documentary.
The only jarring element is the cut to a dramatic re-enactment of Liyah’s scuffle with her client, and an animation of a revolving gun that intrudes upon the screen as she speaks. For a first scene that delivers such a punch in the gut, these serve only as an unnecessary and distracting embellishment. This, thankfully, becomes less of an issue as the film progresses, with almost all scenes afterward being in the interview style. One of the main strengths of Smith’s approach is the interweaving of the main four women’s testimonies with those of others. Most memorable is the perspective of XoTommy, who explains how his relationship with his trans partner, Rich-Paris, has been perceived by his family and the wider Black community. Interspersed too is the admittedly humorous ramblings of songwriter Lø (Michael Carlos Jones), whose tentative romance with a trans woman causes him to oscillate between questioning and reaffirming his heterosexuality.
D. Smith has achieved an impressive feat for a first-time filmmaker. She has crafted a documentary that is vibrant, truthful and unjudgmental. There is full acknowledgement of the daily danger that sex workers face, particularly Black transgender women. Koko Da Doll, who shared her hope of leaving sex work behind for a career in music, became a victim of the very violence she had spoken of. On the 18th of April 2023, she was fatally shot by a client. Though it is only a documentary, a small light shone upon the lives of Black transgender sex workers in the US, D. Smith’s Kokomo City is a sincere acknowledgment of the experiences of a group of people who are so often overlooked and mistreated. But it also paints a portrait of their strength, their humour, and their vitality.
[By Eve Connor, she/her]
Nowhere (1997) dir. Gregg Araki
Drenched in his signature sensibility of post-AIDS crisis nihilism, director Gregg Araki’s 1997 film Nowhere returns to the big screen as part of this year’s Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF). Set over the course of one day, the film chronicles a moment in the lives of a group of eighteen-ish-year-olds as they drive around, skip school, have casual sex, and do drugs. The plot’s relatively directionless nature carries hints of 1967’s Masculine Féminin, Jean-Luc Godard’s own exploration of aimless youth, and a noted influence on Araki. At the centre here is Dark (James Duval), a bisexual aspiring filmmaker and conflicted romantic who feels increasingly lost amongst his group of cynical peers. Trapped in a friend’s-with-benefits situationship with the intelligent and unsentimental Mel (Rachel True), he yearns for a kind of love that seems impossible within the film’s landscape of empty excesses and industrial alienation.
The dialogue imbues the proceedings with a camp absurdity through its deliberate misuse of nineties vernacular in a way that feels reminiscent of Beyond The Valley of the Dolls (1970) bending of the slang of the sixties to comedic effect. Making it all the more jarring when moments of extreme seriousness – such as the brutal murder that occurs during the film’s climactic house party scene – seem to erupt out of almost nowhere.
The presiding tone here is vastly one of bleakness, presenting a refracted vision of a reality in which material pleasures are readily available but provide no solace in the face of a world devoid of spirituality. However, there are sparse moments of tenderness brought on by the wistfully angelic Montgomery (Nathan Bexton), who appears to offer Dark the promise of real love and connection. Inevitably though, these hopeful prospects prove impossible in the film’s surreally supernatural final moments. While, lacking the painful underbelly of some of Araki’s other films which cover similar ground, moments such as these – which are as befuddling as they are striking – instill Nowhere with a quiet mystique.
[By Fergus Kane, he/him]
Instagram: Fergus_Kane
Sex Change Shock! Horror! Probe! (1989) dir. Kristiene Clark
Kristiene Clark’s documentary, Sex Change Shock! Horror! Probe! offers an insightful exploration into the lives of five transgender individuals during the Thatcherite era in Britain. Originally aired on Channel 4 in the late 1980s, the film follows five trans individuals; Adele Anderson, Stephanie Anne Lloyd, Racheal Webb, Mark Rees, and Christine Goodwin, capturing their struggles, triumphs, and unwavering resilience amidst societal constraints and prejudices. The documentary was screened as part of the Scottish Queer International Film Festival at the CCA and was followed by a director Q&A with Clark.
Clark’s approach to storytelling is characterized by a profound sense of empathy and understanding, deviating from the customary detached and voyeuristic perspective often associated with documentaries on the queer, specifically trans, community. Rather than depicting trans individuals as subjects to be examined, Sex Change Shock! Horror! Probe! serves as a narrative crafted by and for the transgender community, allowing for a genuine sense of recognition and empowerment that has long been absent from mainstream media representations.
The film strategically employs satire and humour to deconstruct societal preconceptions surrounding transgender individuals, as revealed by Clark during the director Q&A. The deliberately provocative title serves as a direct challenge to the sensationalist and dehumanizing media representations of transgender people prevalent in the 1980s, enabling the documentary to transcend sensationalist stereotypes and delve into the multifaceted stories and struggles of its subjects.
Notably, the inclusion of Mark Rees, whose recent passing adds a profound poignancy to the narrative, underscores the significance of representing diverse experiences within the transgender community. Clark’s sensitive portrayal of Rees, characterized by his candid humour and compelling storytelling, serves to counter the predominant focus on trans women in mainstream media, thus contributing to a more inclusive and multifaceted representation of the transgender experience.
Sex Change Shock! Horror! Probe! not only sheds light on the historical struggles of gender identity but also emphasizes the ongoing relevance of these challenges in contemporary society. Kristiene Clark’s directorial finesse, coupled with the compelling narratives of the film’s subjects, fosters a deeply impactful and thought-provoking reflection on the enduring significance of queer narratives in shaping a more compassionate and inclusive societal dialogue.
[By Ailbhe Ni Mhurchu, she/her]
Image credit: https://www.sqiff.org/ with art by Konstantinos Korakonero
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