Shakedown

Charting the eight-year run of Shakedown, a peripatetic Black lesbian strip club in Los Angeles, director Leilah Weinraub attempts “to portray the before and after of a utopic moment.”

Shakedown emerged from a post-riots, post-OJ, post-integration but still very racially divided Los Angeles. In this divided city, Shakedown is an independent, all Black and all female cash economy.

Shakedown chronicles the explicit performances and personal relationships of the party’s dancers and organizers including Ronnie-Ron, Shakedown Productions’ creator and emcee; Mahogany, the legendary “mother” of the community; Egypt, their star performer; and Jazmine, the “Queen” of Shakedown.