At the outset let me say that I lived in the West Village during the time of the t-girls and the so called Stroll. Also, a really good friend of mine lived just west of me in an an aprtment in what was REALLY the Meat Packing District back then
I have a vivid memory of the area both daytime and nighttime.
The doc is set up as a film that will tell the stories and not edit it in such a way that each individual's story is edited out with an agenda.
Only this documentary has it's own agenda and it's not truthful to what was really happening there back in the day. These were not victims of society. It was their own choice to work the street.
The Meat Packing District was literally a meat packing district. During the week, trucks would come in and meat would be chopped up for distribution.
The film talks about how safe the area was and how no one would go there. Well here's the thing -- it WASN'T safe at all. The sex-workers could be very sketchy and dangerous.
Further, after hours there would be no reason to go there unless you wanted a sex worker to hire or, in my case, came to visit your friend.
It was actually rather scary back then.
Fact is, in the 80's there were many areas south of 30th Street -- east and west -- that were overrun with sex workers after dark or on the weekend. The movie makes it seem that people were against t-girls when in fact they didnt want sex-workers walking in their neighborhood.
Later one says they were "pushed" out. Well it's not like they were targeted. The area was developed and the rich moved in lke many areas in Manhattan that were unsafe until Guiliani cleaned up the city.
It was a a very disappointing documentaey.
Plot summary
The history of New York’s Meatpacking District, told from the perspective of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there. Filmmaker Kristen Lovell, who walked “The Stroll” for a decade, reunites her community to recount the violence, policing, homelessness, and gentrification they overcame to build a movement for transgender rights.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
June 22, 2023 at 01:19 PM
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Black trans lives matter
The Stroll is a part of the Meatpacking District in Manhattan where not so long ago (mostly black) trans women lived and survived as prosritutes (some of them were kicked out of their homes and none could find a decent job because of who they where). This documentary is about those women, those fighters who are still trying to maintain their dignity in a world dominated by the white cis straight man. It's a great testament of their work, their everyday battles and their legacy. And about the many many women who died trying to survive in the streets. It's also about a forgotten New York, erased by gentrification and whitewashing.