Crushing On Movie Club Presents: Zola

Join us this August for a screening of Zola (2020), directed by Janicza Bravo, as part of our celebration of films directed by women during Women's Month in South Africa.

Based on the viral 2015 Twitter thread by A'Ziah "Zola" King, Zola follows a Detroit waitress who is persuaded to join a trip to Florida with a new acquaintance. What begins as an exciting opportunity quickly spirals into a chaotic and increasingly dangerous journey involving sex work, money, manipulation and betrayal.

Starring Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun and Colman Domingo, Zola is a darkly funny, surreal and deliberately unconventional film that plays with the boundaries between fact and fiction.

For this month's discussion, we'll explore what it means to adapt a story born on social media, how women filmmakers approach stories about women's lives and sexuality, and the ways Zola uses humour, style and absurdity to tell a story about power, exploitation and agency.