In the last screening of the 2017 Whitney Biennial Film Program, Leilah Weinraub presents her new film SHAKEDOWN, “an intoxicating, dreamlike portrait of Los Angeles’ African-American lesbian strip club scene, in which a network of female performers attached to a weekly party called Shakedown take center stage. SHAKEDOWN chronicles the personal and professional relationships of the party’s dancers and organizers, among them: Ronnie-Ron, Shakedown Productions’ creator and emcee; Mahogany, the legendary mother of the scene; Egypt, Shakedown’s star dancer; and Jazmine, the Queen of Shakedown. Mapping out economies of pleasure rarely seen onscreen, Weinraub herself emerges as a desiring participant, rejecting the pose of ‘neutral onlooker’ in favor the intimate gaze of a collaborator and confidante.”*

In 2007, Weinraub and Shayne Oliver founded Hood by Air, now on hiatus. Oliver is creating a collection for Helmut Lang, and Weinraub, for now, will concentrate on filmmaking.

LEILAH WEINRAUB—SHAKEDOWN, Saturday, May 20, at 2 pm and 5 pm. Sunday, May 21, at 3 pm.

Weinraub will join Christopher Y. Lew, co-curator of the 2017 Biennial, for a post-screening conversation on May 21.

WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, 99 Gansevoort Street, New York City.

*whitney.org/Events/LeilahWeinraub

Shakedown (2017), directed by Leilah Weinraub. Image credit: Leilah Weinraub and the Whitney Museum of American Art.