Shot over a two-year period by directors Verena Paravel and J.P. Sniadecki, Foreign Parts is a Frederick Wiseman-style slice of life centered on a rough and tumble corner of New York City known as Willets Point. Slated repeatedly for redevelopment, Willets Point is adjacent to Citifield, the recently opened ballpark that serves as home for the New York Mets. Some of the film's most memorable moments come via stunning long distance shots of the stadium, the opulence and magnificence of which contrast startlingly with the auto shops and junkyards of Willets Point.
Are the locals envious? Not at all: in fact, they're opposed, or at best indifferent, to Mayor Bloomberg's plans for the 'hood, which they consider gifts from the Mayor to his developer buddies. The Point's tight-knit working-class community (which consists of a potpourri of transients, ex-cons, drug addicts, down and outers, immigrants, and one — count him, one — permanent resident who's lived there for 76 years) is unimpressed by the glitter of Citifield or Bloombo's promises of new apartments and amenities. Foreign Parts is an elegiac salute to the stubborn spirit of backwoods urban America, and a reminder that you can still get great deals on windshield repair if you only know where to look.
Are the locals envious? Not at all: in fact, they're opposed, or at best indifferent, to Mayor Bloomberg's plans for the 'hood, which they consider gifts from the Mayor to his developer buddies. The Point's tight-knit working-class community (which consists of a potpourri of transients, ex-cons, drug addicts, down and outers, immigrants, and one — count him, one — permanent resident who's lived there for 76 years) is unimpressed by the glitter of Citifield or Bloombo's promises of new apartments and amenities. Foreign Parts is an elegiac salute to the stubborn spirit of backwoods urban America, and a reminder that you can still get great deals on windshield repair if you only know where to look.