Chop Shop
United States • 2007
Director
#1067Criterion Collection →Synopsis
For his acclaimed follow-up to MAN PUSH CART, Ramin Bahrani once again turned his camera on a slice of New York City rarely seen on-screen: Willets Point, Queens, an industrial sliver of automotive-repair shops that remains perpetually at risk of being redeveloped off the map. It’s within this precarious ecosystem that twelve-year-old Ale (Alejandro Polanco) must grow up fast, hustling in the neighborhood chop shops to build a more stable life for himself and his sister (Isamar Gonzales), even as their tenuous circumstances force each to compete with other struggling people and make desperate decisions. A deeply human story of a fierce but fragile sibling bond being tested by hardscrabble reality, CHOP SHOP tempers its sobering authenticity with flights of lyricism and hope.
Synopsis
For his acclaimed follow-up to MAN PUSH CART, Ramin Bahrani once again turned his camera on a slice of New York City rarely seen on-screen: Willets Point, Queens, an industrial sliver of automotive-repair shops that remains perpetually at risk of being redeveloped off the map. It’s within this precarious ecosystem that twelve-year-old Ale (Alejandro Polanco) must grow up fast, hustling in the neighborhood chop shops to build a more stable life for himself and his sister (Isamar Gonzales), even as their tenuous circumstances force each to compete with other struggling people and make desperate decisions. A deeply human story of a fierce but fragile sibling bond being tested by hardscrabble reality, CHOP SHOP tempers its sobering authenticity with flights of lyricism and hope.
Credits
Crew
DirectorRamin Bahrani
WriterBahareh Azimi, Ramin Bahrani
CinematographerMichael Simmonds
ComposerM. Lo
EditorRamin Bahrani
ProducerLisa Muskat, Marc Turtletaub, Jeb Brody