Nightwalker

“Nightwalker” codes disproportionately target Black women or those who “make a display” by wearing clothing deemed risqué by an arresting officer. In Nightwalker (2022), an extension of a Polaroid and audio project entitled Solicitation of Crimes Against Nature (2021), Ayanna Dozier examines how the surveillant gaze of the state and the gaze of the sexual predator converge and reinforce one another. The film refuses to settle the question of whether the protagonist is a sex worker: it is precisely this ambiguity that exposes how simply being looked at is enough to designate, categorize, and criminalize.