KOKOMO CITY
“Several interviewees in KOKOMO CITY theorize on why Black cis culture holds such deep-rooted tensions with trans women.”
Title: KOKOMO CITY (2023)
Director: D. Smith 👩🏾🇺🇸🌈
Writer: D. Smith 👩🏾🇺🇸🌈
Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸
Technical: 3.25/5
Documentaries about Black trans women often follow dramatic narratives. The iconic Paris is Burning (1990) and KIKI (2016) conjure dazzling fantasy as they explore New York City’s ballroom subculture. Others, like biopic The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017) or Disclosure (2020), focus on the devastating injustices that trans women of color face.
For that reason, music producer D. Smith’s feature film debut, KOKOMO CITY, feels refreshing in its smaller scope. It’s a quotidian look at a handful of NYC- and Atlanta-based women, many of them surviving through sex work. We meet the politically passionate Daniella Carter, glamorous model Dominique Silver, musician Koko Da Doll, and long-lashed, coquettish Liyah Mitchell as they go about their days and muse aloud about whatever comes to mind. Other vignettes arrive through other trans women and cisgender men.
At times, these intimate portraits can feel scatter-shot, jumping from monologue to monologue with topics that feel circuitous. In particular, Atlanta songwriter “LØ,” who has penned hits for artists like Beyonce and Usher, is given outsized camera time. The cis man introduces himself as someone who is attracted to trans women—an interesting perspective, yes, but it’s unclear why he appears multiple times, repeating the same insights. More compelling would be to capture a broader swathe of individuals across gender identities than the few cis men who recur, or to follow our intrepid leads with more depth and curiosity.
Smith clearly had a vision for her feature debut—to hand the megaphone to women who deserve to be heard—and she delivers their words through bold visuals and musical verve. But as the viewer, KOKOMO CITY can feel limited. You don’t become immersed in another world; you aren’t going on a journey with any particular individual. Your job is to listen and bear witness to the truths of these individuals. That’s fair, and important. But it lacks the claws that dig in deeper, forcing you to remember it long after the credits roll.
Gender: 5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES
Directed by a trans woman, KOKOMO CITY gives the platform to other trans women who discuss a wide range of things, often touching on complicated issues around gender: how transphobia can come more fully from cis women than from cis men; the intersection of Blackness and masculinity; or the pros and cons of passing as a cis woman. Each analysis comes from such personal experience that it’s a privilege to hear their takes.
Race: 5/5
KOKOMO CITY thrives in the overlap of different identities, including Black identity. With a director and all main interview subjects falling in this demographic, it’s no wonder audiences get to hear about complex topics. Multiple individuals theorize on why Black cis culture holds such deep-rooted tensions with LGBTQ communities. In a memorable sequence, Daniella concludes:
The Black experience has always been limited to the way in which a white person told us we could live. And we threaten that as Black trans women. Because what we're saying to Black people who have been conditioned in that mindset—that “a Black man should be this way” and “a Black woman should be that way”—we're saying, “fuck all that.”
Bonus for LGBTQ: +1.00
Monologues extend to thoughts on sexuality, with extensive comparisons between the way cis and trans people go through life. It’s wonderful to see the well-traversed matters of sex and romance from the angles of these interviewees; one couple, Rich-Paris and her cis boyfriend XOTOMMY, conducts their segments in tandem as Smith adds sweet and sultry montages of them being affectionate with each other, embracing, kissing. Other subjects, like Koko Da Doll, detail the difficulty in separating romance from sex work. She says, “I can't even date guys because I've dealt with so many men … If you don't have anything for me, I don't want to deal with you."
Talk of relationships roam to how cis people date. Liyah points out how so many cis women “won’t even date bisexual men,” contrasting that of her own attractions to people across the LGBTQ spectrum. When you have a documentary directed by and featuring trans women, you can bet that conversations about gender presentation, passing, gender affirming surgery, and other salient issues will all have nuance.
Mediaversity Grade: A 4.75/5
Although KOKOMO CITY ambles from topic to topic, a recurring theme ties everything together: the lack of safety these women feel as a daily baseline. Anecdotes of terrifying peril, and of friends who have been killed, dot the interviews with painful frequency. Despite their difficult lives, each person Smith presents demonstrates palpable empathy for others, even to those who have hurt them. It’s an approach we could all learn from.
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