Game Girls: Alina Skrzeszewska’s Tale of Two Girlfriends in Los Angeles Skid Row

July 5, 2018 by

Game Girls follows Teri and her girlfriend Tiahna as they navigate their relationship through Los Angeles’ Skid Row, the “homeless capital of the U.S.”

The tension between the two women rises when Tiahna seems comfortable being a player in the underground economy of Skid Row,  while Teri is driven by a powerful desire to get out.

Joining other women from the neighborhood, they attend a weekly Expressive Arts workshop, where they reflect, dream, and heal.

Can their love survive the violence of their past and their current environment?

Director Alina Skrzeszewska was born in Wroclaw, Poland. During the politically charged years after the outbreak of the Solidarity movement her family emigrated to West Germany, and Alina grew up in Munich. She studied Stage Design and Art&Media at the University of the Arts in Berlin, and received an MFA in Film&Video from the California Institute of the Arts. In 2007/2008 she lived in an SRO hotel on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. Since then, the neighborhood has become something of a spiritual home for her, and Alina went on to make several films revolving around the area.

Her first documentary feature, Songs from the Nickel (2010) was shown at many film festivals around the world (Visions du Réel, DocLisboa, Gijon, among others) and has won several awards.

Alina is the recipient of scholarships and grants among them a 12 month DAAD artist grant (2007/2008) and the Nipkow project development grant in Berlin 2012. She lives and works in Los Angeles and is the mother of a wonderful young boy.

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