5:30 - 7:30
Director Kristen Lovell with be in conversation with artist and educator, SNJV, following the screening of The Stroll.
When Director Kristen Lovell moved to New York City in the 1990s and began to transition, she was fired from her job. With so few options to earn money to survive, Kristen, like many transgender women of color during this era, began sex work in an area known as “The Stroll” in the Meatpacking District of lower Manhattan, where trans women congregated and forged a deep camaraderie to protect each other from harassment and violence. Reuniting her sisters to tell this essential New York story from their first-hand experiences, Kristen’s intimate narration and interviews bring an astonishing array of archival material of bygone New York from the 1970s through the early 2000s to life.
The award-winning documentary, The Stroll, reminds us that trans women of color and sex workers continue to forge a path forward, thriving through their resilience, community organizing and sisterhood.
NR, 85 mins., 2023. Closed captions (CC) in English.
Co-sponsored by The Transgender District.
Kristen Lovell has been an advocate in the trans community for over 20 years. As an actress, she appeared in Random Acts of Flyness, and she was co-producer of the award-winning feature The Garden Left Behind. The Stroll is her directorial debut.
SNJV is an artist using dance, drag, and drama to showcase humanity. Infusing culture into dance and fashion, SNJV creates performances for stage and film. SNJV holds the title of Mr. GAPA and is the first South-Asian title holder in GAPA’s history. (GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance). In addition, he is the co-founder of Parivar-a social collective to support and celebrate queer, trans, gender non-conforming folks connected to the South Asian diaspora. He is also an educator who lectures about his research on drag, dance, and identity in university and corporate spaces. While SNJV loves being in front of the camera, he enjoys stepping behind the lens to produce and direct films drawing on culture, queerness, and texture.
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