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  • 1 week ago
Treasure is a feature documentary about nineteen year old trans woman Shelly 'Treasure' Hilliard whose murder involved police coercion, Jim Crow drug laws, the criminalization of sex work and transphobia. It is about a young Detroit trans community activated by her death, and her family who are suing for justice.
Transcript
00:03Hey guys, I'm Shelly, I'm hoping you enjoy yourself as you look through my pictures and
00:09my videos.
00:11I'm a very passable girl as you can tell, I'm 20, Irish and black, I'm 5'7", I only
00:17weigh 160.
00:18I'm thick and the right fuck.
00:23I got a call from Treasure, and she said, Mama, I'm scared, and I'm like, for what?
00:28And she said, the police is here.
00:37The cops roll up, and when they find her with a little bit of pot in the room, they say,
00:42if you don't call your dealer back to the scene right now and work as an informant for us,
00:47we're going to send you to jail or to prison.
00:53If confidential informants are identified, death is a great likelihood.
01:02I can't say this is about a hate crime, I can't say this is about this.
01:06It's about this systematic form of oppression in terms of government control of bodies in
01:10a larger way, and Shelly was an unfortunate victim in that.
01:17When I saw her just living her life and living in her truth, I mean, had these gorgeous red
01:23braids just down her back, and I'm like, yes, girl, you know, it just really inspired me.
01:28One thing that money can't do is replace my sister, and I miss her so much.
01:44It just seemed like everything I prayed, I didn't want to happen, it happened.
01:49I remember very vividly a phone call from my head of homicide to inform me that they found
01:54a torso.
01:56He was speculating that possibly it could be that of a missing 19-year-old, Shelly Hilliard.
02:07And I just knew she was gone, my only thing was, where is she?
02:12Where's somebody?
02:25Shelly Hilliard.

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