The Stroll
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“A Call to Action for Everybody To Preserve Their History Before It’s Gone”: Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker on The Stroll
Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s Sundance-premiering The Stroll is a beautifully and lovingly crafted time capsule of NYC’s Meatpacking District that mostly spans from Giuliani’s infamous “broken windows” reign of terror through Bloomberg’s post-9/11 “gentrification on steroids,” as one knowledgeable interviewee ruefully reflects (seconds after I coincidentally yelled those same words at my screener). Unsurprisingly, our billionaire mayor did indeed view unrestrained capitalism as the solution to every problem, including that of the “undesirable” communities—starving artists and sex workers—that called the neighborhood home. For me, the most revelatory aspect of this heartfelt walk down memory lane isn’t that it’s offered from […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jun 21, 2023 -
“When a Place Is Transformed and Scrubbed, so Are the Original Memories”: Editor Mel Mel Sukekawa-Mooring on The Stroll
In The Stroll, the gentrification of New York City’s Meatpacking District is told through the history of the trans sex workers who long worked and resided in the neighborhood. Through extensive archival materials and intimate interviews, co-directors Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker explore how police violence factored into the downfall of “The Stroll” where this community would congregate. Editor Mel Mel Sukekawa-Mooring discusses cutting the film, also touching on the “roundabout journey” that brought them to the industry. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2023 -
“These Same Street Corners Have Evolved Into Something Almost Unrecognizable”: DP Sara Kinney on The Stroll
The gentrification of New York’s Meatpacking District is told through the eyes of the trans women of color who lived and worked there in the nonfiction feature The Stroll. Once a go-to destination for sex workers to meet with clients, the neighborhood has become increasingly sanitized and corporate. In witnessing gentrification unfold due to increased policing and rampant development, directors Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker chart a neighborhood’s decline by way of its “up-and-coming” nature. DP Sara Kinney discusses first meeting The Stroll‘s co-director Drucker when they were teenagers, using a plethora of archival images and the enormous compliment of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 27, 2023
