‘The Stroll’ Review: Poignant Tribute Documents Trans Sex Workers in Pre-Gentrified NYC
thewrap.comth Street before gentrification. As a longtime resident explains, “The S&M bars, the hookers, the meatpackers. That’s what was down here.” Yes, it really was home to meatpacking plants by day, before sex workers took over at night.
Many of the latter were trans women of color, and these are the women Lovell and co-director Zackary Drucker (“The Lady and the Dale”) aim to honor.Lovell’s intimate connection to the subject forms the basis of the film’s power, which rests on a palpable pride in sisterhood.
Like Lovell herself, most of the women she interviews were young, homeless and had no other way to support themselves when they arrived at the Stroll — their name for the 14th Street stretch they walked and worked.
Some stayed on the Stroll for a few years, others for decades. They were there as early as 1980 and as late as 2010. And they looked out for each other, when absolutely no one else would.
