D. Smith, director of the Sundance premiere of the documentary “Kokomo City,” signs with CAA

EXCLUSIVE: CAA has signed up-and-coming filmmaker D. Smith, whose documentary Kokomo town Premieres later today at the Sundance Film Festival.

The project is Smith’s feature film debut and looks at the lives of black transgender sex workers in New York and Georgia as they examine their relationships with the black community and with themselves. Sharing “reflections on knotty desires, pointless taboos, identification at work, and the many meanings of gender,” according to the Sundance program, “these women offer an outrageous and cutting analysis of black culture and society at large from this point of view. is fuller.” Energy, sex, challenge and hard-earned wisdom.”

Kokomo townThe first in-person screening at Sundance is tonight at 5:30 PM MST at Park City, Utah’s Egyptian Theater. The film will then celebrate its international premiere next month as part of the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival. Smith, Harris Doran and Bill Butler produced the film, while Hillman Grad’s Lena Waithe and Rishi Rajani just came on board as executive producers, sharing credits with Stacy Barthe and William Melillo.

Smith is also a two-time Grammy Award-nominated producer, singer-songwriter who produced and released “Shoot Me Down” from Lil Wayne’s 8x platinum album. The Carter III. She also wrote and produced Billy Porter’s #1 Billboard dance single “Love Yourself” and made history with VH1 Love & Hip Hopas the first trans woman to be cast in an unscripted prime-time series.

Smith is still managed by Industry Entertainment.