Decatur-based Liyah Mitchell and New Yorker Dominique Silver had never met “Kokomo City” director D. Smith before they made the film, but both were excited about the way she pitched the project. An acclaimed look at four Black transgender sex workers in New York and Atlanta, the documentary made a big splash at Sundance earlier this year.
Mitchell recalls that when Smith told her that the project would help out other transgender people in the world, she agreed to participate. It was a similar story for Silver.
“D. said it was going to be epic and monumental and talk to the Black community to speak about the struggle we have as Black trans women,” Silver said. “I thought it was a love letter to the community to put a face to the suffering we have endured as Black trans women.”
The experience working with Smith, who is well known for the reality series Love & Hip Hop Atlanta and for being the first trans woman to appear on a prime-time unscripted TV series, was one that made the project exciting.
“She is very chill and mellow and has a personality that you become comfortable with her,” Mitchell said. “That made the experience overall not as stressing. She told us to be ourselves and be authentic and that made it a more confident one.”
Silver immediately sensed Smith’s passion.
“Her passion for the film and the name she came with and what she represented gave me incentive to feel comfortable, to know that our story was not going to be misconstrued and would be delivered how we wanted it to be delivered,” Silver said. “For us by us, by a Black trans woman. It was refreshing to give us a platform and a voice and let us talk about issues we have been dealing with our whole lives.”
When the two first saw the film at Sundance, it was a life-changing moment.
“I actually cried, seeing myself on screen with everybody laughing,” Mitchell said. “It’s like you don’t want to look away for one moment. The film…
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