The picture is hand-drawn by Weibo blogger J_ULIET_
In 1971, Florida Disneyland was completed, this 12228-hectare amusement park is the largest of the world's 6 Disney parks, divided into "Animal Kingdom", "Magic City", "Science Fiction World" and "Dream World" 4 theme parks, as well as 3 water parks, at least 5 days to play all the amusement facilities.
However, our story does not take place in Disney, but in the motel next to the playground. Separated from Disney by a wall, there are people at the bottom of the United States. They have no fixed income, no access to social security, and children cannot afford to go to school. They live in motels, pay cheap rents, and live hopeless lives.
Residential motel
Harley smoking in the heavy rain
Mooney, 6, lives here. She and her playmates roamed around several nearby motels every day, and without a better education, they were swear and misbehaving, but they were not ashamed. Spit on neighbors' cars, run to nobody's houses and set fires, cheat others in exchange for pocket money for ice cream... They caused trouble again and again, bringing more irritability to the hot and noisy summer days.
Of course, behind this irritability is also the innocence of the child. They eat the tricked ice cream, but leave the last bite to their friends. Even if you eat leftovers in a fast food restaurant, you can swing while eating. Even with the monotonous environment, Mooney always comes up with all kinds of games. They pull electric gates, hide and seek, and make a mess of the adult world, but they enjoy themselves.
In contrast to Mooney's ignorant and rambling life is that of her young mother, Harley. Harley had Mooney at the age of 15 and is now just 21, so she has to take on the responsibility of raising her alone. Harley originally made a living by dancing, but was fired for refusing a customer's request for sexual service. With her daughter to raise, Harley couldn't find a full-time job and turned to reselling inferior perfumes and stealing Disney bracelets. Originally, relying on her friend Ashley, the mother and daughter could still eat free fast food, but after the relationship became rigid, they had to afford to eat and drink by themselves. With increasing pressure on her life, Harley ended up making a living from prostitution.
Maybe we'll berate Harley for being irresponsible, for being incorruptible in her youth. But deciding to keep a life at the age of 15 also requires a lot of courage. No one can control their life to the absolute right. But aren't those "incorrect" lives worth paying for and sticking to? Without culture, there is no way out. Parents do not contact, with daughters, it is naturally difficult to find a partner. For Harley, the stress of life is not something that can be dissipated by smoking a few more cigarettes.
Sean Baker is a director who is very good at using colors, and his films have a theme color. "Florida Paradise" is based on the theme of purple. Purple symbolizes irony, spirituality and mysticism in the film. In the movie, not only the motel is painted purple, but the whole film also uses a large number of purple masks, making the story under the camera full of irony. Affluence and poverty, Disney and motels, innocence and cruelty, form a glaring contrast in the film.
Sean Baker is not a mainstream director, and he pays more attention to marginalized groups in his selection of materials. His "Waiting for the Rose" tells the story of av actresses and widowed old people. "Orange" is about transgender prostitutes who work in less glamorous corners of Hollywood. The marginalized groups under his lens, although they live a difficult life and lack of education, have never given up the pursuit of love and warmth in the world.
In "Waiting for the Rose", although the heroine is an av actress, she always tries her best to compensate after taking the old man's $10,000. The heroine repeatedly tested the old man to see if she remembered the money she had taken by mistake, although she was sure that the old man had forgotten everything, and insisted on fulfilling the old man's wish to go to Paris.
We look at the bottom of society and often wear colored glasses. This group also shows a disgusting side because of its own lack of upbringing. For example, Mooney in "Florida Paradise" is simply a bear child. The protagonist in "Orange" is stupid and profanity. It is easy to arouse the audience's disgust with this part of the group. But there is no lack of sincere feelings in this group of people, love, sympathy, pity, hope, in the crevices of desperate life, quietly blooming.
"Waiting for the Rose"
"Orange"
Of course, choosing to shoot such a subject also takes a certain risk. In the director's self-description, he said that in 2007, he had just completed his third feature film, "The Prince of Broadway", which cost 46,000 knives, all out of his own pocket. At that time, he decided to devote all of his 100,000 knives to the release of the film. At that time, he got his films into some of the most prestigious theaters, including the Anjelica Film Center in New York, and a lot of money was spent on publicity, and a New York Times advertisement alone cost thousands of knives. He was sure he could get his money back. But big mistake. "The Prince of Broadway" sank in the movie theater, spent 100,000 knives, and only earned back 28,000 knives, the worst investment in history. In his 40s, he even asked his parents for money to get by.
But Sean Baker hasn't given up on marginalized groups and subcultures. He believes that the more stories like this are told, the less these people have to become so marginal. His goal is to give these often impersonal hidden crowds a human face so that everyone can be inspired to build a better world. Sometimes bringing a problem to light is the first step to making a difference.
Sean Baker
Sean Baker did just that, and "Florida Paradise" was nominated for the Director's Biwealth section of the 70th Cannes Film Festival. He won the Independent Camera Award at the 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for Orange and was nominated for Best Picture at the 31st Independent Spirit Awards.
I hope that the world will no longer suffer, and I hope that Florida will become a true paradise.