Female Film Critics 24/375
When you leave a pimp, it’s called ‘blowin up,’” says a woman in this extraordinary documentary. She is getting help with this — a task, she says, that is not only difficult, for many reasons of which financial necessity is but one, but also dangerous — from the Human Trafficking Intervention Court in the New York City borough of Queens.
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Stephanie Wang-Breal’s calmly compassionate fly-on-the-wall documentary Blowin’ Up takes viewers inside a unique courtroom in Queens. Run by Judge Toko Serita, the court is the first of its kind to approach prostitution in a way that encourages solving problems rather than compounding them. Counseling and training take the place of shaming and judgment.
Stephanie Wang-Breal’s powerful and timely film shines a light on the rare workings of a legal system that exists to help, not punish; to advocate, not to judge; and to genuinely find a way to change the bleak lives of the mostly young, marginalized women including trans women who survive by doing sex work in the massage parlors and on the streets of Queens.
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Blowin’ Up, is a beautifully crafted documentary that combines intimate on camera interviews with well-positioned fly on the wall observances to deliver a well-researched, convincing deliberation about the prostitution of young women, a crucial issue that concerns women of all ages. This must see film should be seen as a double bill with Very Young Girls.
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Stephanie Wang-Breal uses an unobtrusive fly-on-the-wall approach, with no narration and few interviews. Mostly, we just see the court and the people around it doing their good work, but we also follow a few individual stories. The court room footage proves surprisingly involving and even gripping at times. We come to care about these young women who have fallen into this life, often out of economic need and now have no way to escape, as well as the people with the court and non-profit striving to open that door for them.
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