D. Smith, Director of Sundance Premiere Documentary “Kokomo City,” Signs with CAA

exclusive: Civil Aviation Administration Emerging Filmmakers Signed D. Smithwhose documentary Kokomo City will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival later today.

The project, which marks Smith’s directorial debut, captures raw, cutting-edge, and rare perspectives on the lives of black transgender sex workers in New York and Georgia, while exploring their relationship to the black community and themselves. In “sharing reflections on thorny desires, far-reaching taboos, identity in labor, and the many meanings of gender,” according to the Sundance Project, “these women offer a vantage point for black culture and society at large.” Unapologetic and sharp analysis that is full of energy, sex, challenge and hard-earned wisdom.”

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Kokomo CityThe Sundance Film Festival’s first live screening begins tonight at 5:30 pm CST at the Egyptian Theater in Park City, Utah. The film will next have its international premiere as part of the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival next month. Smith, Harris Doran and Bill Butler produced the film, and Hillman Grad’s Lena Waithe and Rishi Rajani have just joined as executive producers, sharing the credit with Stacy Barthe and William Melillo.

Smith is also a two-time Grammy Award-nominated record producer, singer and songwriter who produced and appeared on Lil Wayne’s 8-platinum album “Shoot Me Down” Carter III. She also wrote and produced Billy Porter’s #1 Billboard dance single “Love Yourself” and made history with VH1 love and hip hopas the first transgender woman to star in a primetime improv series.

Smith continues to be managed by Industry Entertainment.

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