‘Kokomo City’ Amplifies the Voices of Trans Sex Workers

Kokomo City, the directorial debut from D. Smith that follows the stories of four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York, is now playing in theaters and available to stream.

Raw, provocative, and humorous, this wildly entertaining and refreshingly unfiltered portrait stars Daniella Carter, Liyah Mitchell, Dominique Silver, and the late Koko Da Doll, who unapologetically hold nothing back while breaking down the walls of their profession. Full of energy, sex, challenge, and hard-earned wisdom, Kokomo City won both the NEXT Innovator Award and NEXT Audience Award when it made its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Audience Award in the Panorama Documentary section at the prestigious Berlinale.

Before embarking on her filmmaking journey, Smith made waves in the music industry as a two-time Grammy-nominated producer, singer, and songwriter. She also made history as the first trans woman to be cast on a primetime unscripted TV show, appearing on both the Atlanta and Hollywood versions of the hit reality series Love & Hip Hop.

Mitchell and Silver took some time to talk more about the film and what they took away from this experience with OFM, as well as what they hope Kokomo City portrays to audiences and their touching tributes to Koko Da Doll.

OFM: Let me begin by asking, why did you both want to be involved with this project?

Liyah Mitchell: I think this was a great way to make us more relatable in society and to break down some barriers. There’s a lot of political news around trans people and how sex work and being transgender is still considered taboo. Also, trans people aren’t the only ones who do sex work. All walks of life do sex work. So, I believe this was a great conversation to bring awareness. That there are people in this country that have other occupations, and sex work is valid work. Also, there is a new generation of transgender people coming up. There are kids transitioning in middle school and high school, and I believe this film was needed to start a movement for the future.

Dominique Silver: Like Liyah, I just wanted to break down the stigma about sex work, and I wanted to expose the truth as to why a lot of us get into sex work. It’s a survival technique because we don’t really have many options of occupation. We’re not protected, and we need to survive in this society, no matter how expensive it is. So, it was great to personify an occupation that has a lot of stigmas against it and also personify being transgender, which has been vilainized so much lately. This film is showing people who we truly are and why we made the decisions that we did, as well as what options we have.

Did either of you have any reservations about being so open and showcasing this part of your lives?

DS: Yes. I was very hesitant because I didn’t broadcast publicly that I was a sex worker, and I had people taking care of me throughout my transition, so of course, I didn’t want to jeopardize my security and expose the people that were providing for me. So, I was very nervous at first, but if you don’t put yourself into the front line, no one else will. You have to start these conversations, de-stigmatize sex work, and give a positive example of transgender woman doing what they must do to survive.

LM: I was a little bit hesitant because sex work was something I kind of wanted to keep under wraps at the time. I didn’t want to lead with that in my life because it was just something I did for occupation and just to get by. But there are many people who are in positions where they don’t want to work a job forever. Whether it’s sex work, working at Walmart or Family Dollar, wherever, everybody has a point A to point B. So, that was my point A, and I’m moving on to my point B. There’s no more shame in it because this brought me to where I need to be so I can progress in my life.

Sadly, Koko Da Doll, the fourth subject of this documentary, was murdered earlier this year. Is there anything you would like to say to honor her?

LM: Koko was a very strong person. She was resilient, misunderstood, and she had a hard exterior because she lived a hard life. However, when you really got to know her, she was very sweet, fragile, and she was a woman. She was a great and loving person once you got to know her, and she had big dreams. She wanted to get into music and influence a lot of people.

So, it’s very unfortunate that this happened, but when she was here, she kept telling me how much this experience meant to her and how great it was to her. Even if this was a part of her purpose or journey, I feel like she’s happy knowing that she left something behind.

DS: Yeah, I’m just happy that we can carry on her name, and she will never be forgotten. She was portrayed in a very good light in this film because she was a very positive, sweet, and loving person. It’s sad that her life was taken away because she was living her true, authentic life. Being trans, you are a target in society, so hopefully this will wake people up.

We are people, and this is humanity, and we must do better to protect the people that are under attack. We need to personify that this is the reality we live every day. Hopefully, we can all come together as humanity to protect marginalized people more, so this doesn’t keep happening. It gets very exhausting, and I get very emotional because this could happen to any of us. That’s the harsh reality of it all.

What else do you ultimately hope audiences take away from Kokomo City?

DS: Sex work is work, and transgender people are not these villains preying on people in bathrooms or tricking people. We’re just doing what we need to do to survive. Like Liyah said, this is point A to point B. We have very little options of survival, so let’s try and get rid of the stigma and the vilainization of being Black and trans.

LM: Also, I hope it encourages people to become a go-getter and have that mindset that no matter who you are, what you’re doing, or what people say about you, good or bad, be a go-getter in your life and make it happen. Don’t worry about what people say about you.

For more information and update about Kokomo City, visit magpictures.com.

Photos courtesy of Magnolia Pictures