Both in its unabashed confessional interviews and its propulsive visual style, Kokomo City is an electric portrait of the inner lives of four Black trans sex workers in America. The central quartet — Liyah Mitchell, Dominque Silver, Koko Da Doll, and Daniella Carter — narrate their own specific journeys navigating Blackness, sexuality, and gender while charting their own path to achieving their dreams for the future. Told with a candid vulnerability, their stories deliver unpredictable bouts of humor and raw humanity, packing the film with mile-a-minute insights into their everyday lives and undidactic observations on contemporary social constraints.

Marking the directorial debut of two-time Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer D. Smith, this ferociously cinematic feature announces the arrival of a major new movie-making talent. Behind the camera, Smith is unfettered by stylistic clichés or reductive narratives and steadfast in her bold vision and visual flair. An Audience Award winner at both Sundance and Berlin, Kokomo City obliterates convention by matching the vitality of these women’s stories with its own unique artistic identity.