Kristen Lovell: Last News

—Outstanding Nonfiction Feature 32 SoundsDirected by Sam GreenProduced by Josh Penn and Thomas O. Kriegsmann —Outstanding Direction Maite AlberdiThe Eternal Memory Kaouther Ben HaniaFour Daughters —Outstanding Editing Michael HarteStill: A Michael J. Fox Movie —Outstanding Production Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson Rath, Derl McCrudden and Vasilisa Stepanenko20 Days in Mariupol —Outstanding CinematographyAnts TammikSmoke Sauna Sisterhood —Outstanding Original Score JD Samson32 Sounds —Outstanding Sound DesignMark Mangini32 Sounds —Outstanding Visual DesignThomas Curtis and Sean PierceGoing to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project —Outstanding DebutKokomo CityDirected by D.

Hello and welcome to the Scene 2 Seen podcast. I am Valerie Complex, and today we’re talking about the HBO documentary The Stroll with its directors Kristen Lovell (in her directorial debut), and Zackary Drucker, and one of the film’s subjects Carey Smith about the making of the film, how “The Stroll” became a tight knit community, and the repercussions of changes that exist in the Meatpacking District today. Here is a bit more info regarding today’s guest!

There is a raw, dangerous yet distinctly unapologetic demeanor to the grainy archival footage in the documentary film The Stroll, now streaming on HBO, where transgender sex workers bravely walk the streets of New York City and solicit potential customers cruising by in their cars. Winner of the Special Jury Award – Clarity of Vision at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, The Stroll is the story of director Kristen Lovell’s experience living on the streets in the ‘90s and making money as a sex worker in the Meatpacking District of lower Manhattan. 

Guy Lodge Film Critic Queer history is an act of excavation. Telling stories about the LGBTQ+ community — and of transgender people in particular — necessarily requires sifting through archives that are outright hostile to those they document. In “The Stroll,” a new HBO documentary directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker, the filmmakers excavate decades’ worth of images to tell the story of trans sex workers in the Meatpacking District of New York City. Ostensibly a slice of local history of an increasingly gentrified city that sees marginalized folks as handily disposable, “The Stroll” is an empathetic portrait of a community still fighting for its own survival. The film opens on footage of a young Lovell, taken from the 2007 doc “Queer Streets,” in which she speaks about how she first turned to sex work to make money — more money, in fact, than what she made at her day job. Her eyes are a bit glazed and she keeps looking away: ashamed, perhaps, of what she’s matter-of-factly describing. We then witness the filmmaker, all these years later, assessing those shots in an editing bay where she further explains how she was likely on cocaine when she had cameras following her close to two decades ago.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Corporate consolidation, along with shrinking publicity budgets and streaming services’ willingness to bury their own content, have made film festivals and series increasingly desirable to documentary filmmakers who are not only seeking distribution, but also to those nonfiction helmers who have found a platform for their work. The rocky landscape has made the competition fierce for a slot at not only top-tier festivals, but also regional film events like New York’s Rooftop Films’ Summer Series. Over the course of the last year, Rooftop Films president Dan Nuxoll received 3,500 film submissions for the nonprofit organization’s 27th annual Summer Series, which kicks off on May 25. Only 23 feature films and seven shorts were accepted. (Not all films have been announced.)

Charna Flam Outfest has announced the lineup for its 2023 Outfest Fusion QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous and People of Color) Film Festival, which will run from March 24 through April 2. Outfest Fusion will be celebrating its 20th anniversary by showcasing LGBTQIA+ filmmakers and their various films depicting queer and transgender stories. There will be nine features, including two 2023 Sundance documentaries, “Little Richard: I Am Everything” from Lisa Cortés and “The Stroll” from Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker. Cortés documentary explores how Richard “Little Richard” Penniman worked through his struggles with his sexuality, all while he made his mark on rock n’ roll. While Lovell and Drucker follow transgender women of color as they detail the community’s history of sex work in New York City.