In the shadow of the New York Mets’ new stadium, the Willets Point neighbourhood is an industrial area slated for demolition. Full of makeshift auto-parts resale shops and scrap metal, with no pavements and no sewers, it hardly looks like somewhere to live. But Foreign Parts reveals a strange community in which waste and material for recycling make up a thriving trade. Cars are broken up and sorted by make and part, then resold to an endless list of customers passing through. Joe, the last lifelong resident of the area, angrily tries to fight his imminent eviction. Two lovers, Sara and Luis, struggle to find food and a sense of safety living in an abandoned caravan. Julia, the best known of the homeless, grows animated recalling the daily life of the forgotten. The film observes and captures the struggle of a neighbourhood that will soon disappear at the hands of the capitalisation of New York’s urban ecology.
