Shakedown + Introduction

A screening of Leilah Weinraub's documentary Shakedown, introduced by curator Tosin Alapafuja.

Leilah Weinraub's 2018 documentary Shakedown draws on over 300 hours of footage to portray the Los Angeles club of the same name and its community of Black lesbian dancers and organisers. Combining performances, backstage encounters, interviews and club flyers, the film explores lap dances and stripteases as a shared ritual that complicates money, fantasy, labour and self-expression. Weinraub, who worked at the club as a photographer, frames it as an archival celebration of a community in defiance of forces seeking to erase it. The screening is introduced by independent film curator and archivist Tosin Alapafuja.