FOREIGN PARTS

A hidden enclave in the shadow of the New York Mets' new stadium, the neighbourhood of Willets Point is an industrial zone fated for demolition. Filled with scrapyards and auto salvage shops, lacking sidewalks or sewage lines, the area seems ripe for urban development. But Foreign Parts discovers a strange community where wrecks, refuse and recycling form a thriving commerce. Cars are stripped, sorted and catalogued by brand and part, then resold to an endless parade of drive-thru customers. But even more fascinating than the business itself, are the characters that are around. Joe, the last original resident, rages and rallies through the street like a lost King Lear, trying to contest his imminent eviction. Two lovers, Sara and Luis, struggle for food and safety through the winter while living in an abandoned van. Julia, the homeless queen of the junkyard, exalts in her beatific visions of daily life among the forgotten. The film observes and captures the struggle of a contested "eminent domain" neighbourhood before its disappearance under the capitalization of New York's urban ecology.

 

Véréna Paravel. French anthropologist and filmmaker. She made her first short video, 7 Queens at the Harvard University Sensory Ethnography Lab. Her work—screened in Boston, Paris and New York—explores evanescent forms of intimacy, mediation, and space and draws on experimental ethnography. Since 2009, she has been a Fellow at the Film Study Center, and a postdoctoral associate of the Sensory Ethnography Lab, Harvard University. She has recently completed Interface Series, five short videos shot entirely through Skype.

Filmography
Foreign Parts (2010)
Interface Series (2009)
7 Queens (2008)