Documentary film “Kokomo City”, which won the NEXT Innovator award when it was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival early in last year (It also won the NEXT Audience award, by the way), is exceptional as closely listening to the experiences of several Black transgender sex workers. As they tell each own personal story, we come to understand and empathize more with how they and many others struggle day by day, and the documentary comes to function as a powerful empathetic window to people different from many of us.

At first, director D. Smith, a female transgender filmmaker who also serves as the co-producer/editor/cinematographer of her documentary, introduces four different Black female transgender workers one by one. They are Daniella Carter, Dominique Silver, Koko Da Doll, and Liyah Mitchell, and each of them has interesting stories to tell in front of Smith’s camera. In the opening scene, Mitchell tells us about a rather funny sexual encounter with one Black rapper, and you may be amused a bit by how that dude still wants to see her again despite their unpleasant first encounter.

It is also fascinating to watch these four ladies talking frankly about the sexual taste of their clients, many of whom are actually attracted to them for exactly who they are. Not so surprisingly, those dudes are mostly reluctant to be honest about themselves in their mind even though their bodies cannot help but attracted to what they desire, and the documentary focuses a bit on several Black guys openly talking about their sexuality – and how often their Black communities are oppressive to anything queer. Mainly because of Black people having virtually been second-rated citizens in the American society, many Black communities cannot easily accept sexual minority people as often driven toward being your average model citizen good enough for those White people with power and money, and the documentary sharply recognizes the disparity and hypocrisy resulted from that.

In case of Michael Carlos Jones, a male singer/songwriter who is known as “Lo”, he openly talks about his first experience with a transgender woman, and the story on how he gradually came to accept his sexuality is one of the more interesting parts in the documentary. He surely hesitated at first, but he eventually jumped across the line between hypocrisy and honesty, and now he sincerely hopes to meet that transgender woman again someday, while being more comfortable with his sexuality than before.

All of the four Black transgender women in the documentary have had each own difficult personal struggle as just trying to be themselves in front of others. Not so surprisingly, most of them have been distant to their respective families, and they all had no choice but to survive on streets and alleys for themselves. With a very few options for earning money for themselves, they naturally came to sell their bodies, but none of them feels any shame about that as being true and honest to themselves. Nevertheless, as shown later in the documentary, they have some different opinions on their work and those clients out there, and we get a very compelling moment as the documentary goes back and forth between two of them strongly expressing their respective opinions.

Needless to say, their life is constantly with a lot of risk and danger, and they do not deny at all. They all have some horrific stories from themselves and some of their colleagues, and that reminds me again of how socially vulnerable transgender people have often been for many years. They get frequently targeted outside just for the hate and prejudice against them, and they recently become all the more vulnerable thanks to those vile politicians and hateful public figures such as the author of the Harry Potter series. As a matter of fact, KoKo Da Doll was murdered not long after the documentary was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, and that makes her several key moments in the documentary quite poignant to say the least.

The documentary was certainly a very personal project for Smith, who once had a fairly successful career in the music industry (She worked with Lil Wayne, Ciara, Keri Hilson, Billy Porter and André 3000, for instance) but got ostracized once she began her transition process. Eventually becoming homeless without much money, Smith became interested in making a documentary about Black female transgender sex workers as wondering whether she would resort to prostitution for supporting herself, and that was the beginning of her little precious project.

While making sure that her four main figures of the documentary, to whom she initially approached via social media applications, feel comfortable in front of her camera, Smith occasionally adds some stylish touches in addition to shooting the documentary in black and white film, and that brings some extra spirit to the overall result. At one certain point, Mitchell and her boyfriend willingly allow Smtih to shoot their very intimate moment in front of the camera, and Smith did a commendable job of presenting this moment with care and respect without feeling too voyeuristic.

On the whole, “Kokomo City”, which won the Panorama Audience Award at the Berlin International Film Festival early in last year, is seemingly modest but utterly unforgettable for its sincere and honest presentation of Black female transgender experience. In short, it is one of the better documentaries of last year, and I wholeheartedly recommend it because it will definitely open your eyes more to its main subject.