About choices, strength and salvation | Moving Parts

A conversation with Emilie Upczak on her debut feature Moving Parts

CE: Can you tell us about the inspiration and/ or motivation behind this film?

EU: Moving Parts was conceived in January 2013, shortly after the completion and festival run of my first narrative short film Knockabout, a neo-noir shot in Port of Spain using non-actors. I remember a colleague of mine shared an article with me about a woman who had been ejected from Trinidad and Tobago nine times for illegally entering the country and selling sex. The story interested me; I was curious about the woman, and I also wondered why the journalist criminalised her and did not unpack the story behind the story: Where did she come from? What was she fleeing? What was her economic situation in her home country? Was she a mother, a wife? Who brought her into the country? Who sold her body for sex and who paid for that sex? I began to take notice of the labour force, people from Latin America, from other Caribbean countries, as well as from China. I remember eating out one night at a Chinese restaurant and I thought to myself as our waitress served us, “Who is she? ….why is she here?” This is when the character of Zhenzhen, the protagonist of Moving Parts, was born.

AG: As Writer and Director, what is the “story behind the story” that you wanted to tell through this film?

EU: Moving Parts, shot entirely in Trinidad and Tobago, is the story of a young woman who leaves China after the death of her father to be with her brother, a construction worker on the island. Her expectations are shattered upon arrival, when an arbitrary debt is placed on her for entering the country and she must find a way or means to pay it. Moving Parts is a story about choices and the point in a woman’s life when she chooses to do the unthinkable to save herself and pursue a better life. The film is not a typical story of a northern, white male protagonist saving his black, brown and yellow victims, but rather a quiet observation of one woman and her process in a less than hopeful situation.

AG: At your film premiere in Port of Spain, Trinidad, you mentioned that you were eager to explore the female gaze in this film. Do you think you achieved that, and if so how?

EU: The film was shot by a female cinematographer, Nancy Schreiber – ASC, based in both New York and Los Angeles, the fourth woman ever voted into the prestigious American Society of Cinematographers and just recently the recipient of the ASC President’s Award, the first woman in the 98-year history of the organisation. Nancy was recommended to me by a number of producers and filmmakers in the industry. She has a great reputation and is committed to independent film. I had done my own camera work in some of my previous short films and since Moving Parts is told from the female protagonist’s perspective, I wanted the images authored by a woman as well. It was an experiment with the female gaze, in terms of framing, camera position, and lighting; interestingly, I did find the more intense and intimate scenes came off well with Nancy behind the camera.

“I’m proud to be telling a story about life experiences that are not commonly represented: that of immigrants, the disenfranchised, the desperate, or another way to view them – the strong “

AG: Undeniably, the topic of sex trafficking continues to be a burning issue globally, our islands are no exception. Yet, in-depth and continued discussion seems to be lacking. Is this why you decided to create a film like Moving Parts, set in Trinidad and Tobago?

EU: I have been exposed to the topic of sex trafficking in the Caribbean for over a decade. During my undergraduate studies, I took classes with Dr. Kamala Kempadoo at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She edited an anthology entitled Sun, Sex and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean. This text was an early inquiry for me into the subject of sex work and discussed at length the changing demographics

AG: What about your research process?

EU: In Trinidad, I informally interviewed women working in the sex industry as well as women in domestic servitude. I did field work and went to a number of brothels on the island, spoke with people I knew to gauge attitudes and stories about prostitution, and I looked through printed publications and online sites that advertise sex for sale. Our team was also given profiles by the Counter Trafficking Unit and we received anecdotal and factual information from a non-profit – CURB, which works to curtail sex trafficking in the Caribbean.

AG: Any closing words?

EU: Making an independent narrative feature film is a long journey. This one has taken five years to complete. Film is also such a collaborative process and there are so many points along the way where one can lose track of the tone and vision of the film. I have had a group of serious and creatively minded people on this project, from the cast, crew and executive producers in Trinidad, to our Puerto Rican colleagues and the Chicago, Providence and New York-based post-production team. The movie has taken shape in a way I feel very excited about, from the storytelling to the acting to the cinematography and score. I’m also proud to be telling a story about life experiences that are not commonly represented: that of immigrants, the disenfranchised, the desperate, or another way to view them – the strong.

Emilie Upczak is an independent filmmaker, originally from Boulder, she spent the past ten years living and working in Trinidad and Tobago. Emilie holds an MFA in Film from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a Rotterdam Producer’s Lab alumni. Emilie’s experimental video installations have been exhibited at PG Contemporary in Houston, AIR Gallery in Brooklyn and the Festival International Signes de Nuit in France. Her short films have played at a number of Caribbean and African Diasporic Film Festivals as well as at Clermont Ferrand and MIPTV markets

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Article first published in CULTUREGO MAGAZINE Issue July-September 2018