I think that is what people think this film is all about. SEX. Sex or sex work, prostitution, human trafficking, all of these loaded words. It is sad because the film is so much more.
I am a telephone tech. Like almost every film maker, I have a “real” job. One that pays the bills. There is a guy who I work with who is married to a woman who is going for her green card. She came to this country when she was three. Unfortunately when she was a child her parents never bothered to finish whatever paperwork they needed to do for her citizenship. She is twenty five now, and married to this guy I work with. She has been in the long drawn out process to become a citizen for years now.
On Friday her mother died. Because her mother is going to be buried in Senegal, and she hasn’t finished getting her full residency, she isn’t allowed to go to the funeral. My heart goes out to her.
This situation also came up in my film. “Heather” married her husband “Chris” on 9-11. (It seemed odd to me that someone would be married on a Tuesday, but they were.) The entire time I was filming I was mostly concerned with “Heather’s” reaction with the prostitution laws. In reality she was mostly interested with her immigration case. In every interview all she wanted to talk about is how she wanted to go home to Korea to see her mom. She needed to relax, replenish and then come back to the US to finish her immigration hearings.
I was talking to my college roommate about “Heather’s” immigration case. She thought it was odd that “Heather” was in hearings for seven years, when she works with a a woman who was unmarried and only had one hearing and became a citizen. I asked her where that woman was from and she said England. It makes me think that if you are from a “white” country and go try to immigrate they welcome you with open arms.
happy endings? You Can't Clap with One Hand 