The Foxy Merkins is reminiscent of the sexy but tragic films Midnight Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho — films that define the male hustler genre. Except without the males. Or any identifiably effective hustling skills. Really, this film imagines what it would be like if everyday lesbians were out in the mean streets of New York with only their women’s studies degrees to keep them warm at night, forced to hustle in front of department stores in hoodies, always waiting for the next closeted Republican congresswoman to slip them a hotel room key.

Margaret, played by the endearing Lisa Haas (Dyke Dollar, Frameline34) is a bespectacled, asthmatic newbie in carpenter jeans, and she can’t quite make it on the streets. She doesn’t even know how to pick the right merkin! When Jo (Jackie Monahan), a gay-for-pay grifter from a rich family, takes Margaret under her slightly untrustworthy wing, Margaret starts to turn more, and learn more, tricks—for instance, a yellow bandana in your back pocket means you have more than one cat. Margaret and Jo have adventures in the Sapphic sex trade that range from the absurd to the unclassifiable, as Margaret tries to find her long lost mother and Jo tries to snare a husband. Director Madeleine Olnek (Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, Frameline35) earned a 2014 Independent Spirit Award “Someone to Watch” nomination for this zany comedy mixing social commentary, satire, and stereotypes, and the film was an official selection of Sundance 2014.