“Zola” is the latest ode to all the sticky, seedy, sandy stereotypes we love about Tampa Bay.
The film is a stranger-than-fiction tale following the wacky, intense saga of A’Ziah “Zola” King, who recounted her 48-hour journey in Florida in a 148-Tweet-long thread that went mega viral in 2015 and was dubbed #TheStory. Millions read the story of how a seemingly harmless and glamorous “hoe trip” to Tampa to make a bunch of money dancing turned into scary moments of sex trafficking, going up against Tampa gangsters and attempted suicide.
Much of “Zola,” which arrives in theaters June 30, was filmed at the end of 2018 in the Tampa Bay area where #TheStory took place.
Zola
Opens June 30
90 mins
“We (King and director Janicza Bravo) had the same goal: To make the film very authentic, very 2015, very Tampa, very Florida...very me,” King, who was 19 at the time of the trip in March 2015, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. My main role (was) to get them into my head and into that point of time in my life because it’s a very specific time, not just in Florida but in the world.”
King is an executive producer in the eponymous film, whose screenplay is based on the Rolling Stone piece with King that came out less than a month after the viral thread dropped.
As played by Taylour Paige, Zola is also the star and chief narrator of the film. It all started on Oct. 27, 2015, when Detroit-native King tweeted: “Y’all wanna hear a story about why me and this bitch here fell out????? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.”
“For me, Zola is a fully realized woman making her own decisions – she’s not this one-dimensional stripper,” Paige said in press notes from distributor A24. “Janicza (Bravo) doesn’t oversimplify Black people, or people in general. She’s showing with this movie that we are diverse within our own cultures, and infinitely complex.”
The film follows Zola (Paige), Stefani (Riley Keough), her boyfriend Derek (Nicholas Braun) and Stefani’s violent roommate/pimp X (Colman Domingo) on a sordid odyssey from grimy, yellowed motel rooms and shadowy, mirror-filled strip clubs to luxurious high-end suites and cliché pastel-colored waterfront resorts. “Zola” a sweet and sour dreamscape showcasing the uncomfortable corners of Tampa along with the cookie cutter beachscapes along the area’s Gulf Coast.
“Zola” is also a poignant commentary on the power and independence of sex work juxtaposed with the traumas of sex trafficking.
By the time “Zola” was finished, King said she had already processed her experience in Florida. But when she first saw the film, she said some of those traumas resurfaced.
“It was very traumatic in real life...I had never experienced something like this before,” King told CL. “It was something I had to process on my own. And I think through writing I did that; through writing it on Twitter and finding the humor in it. And to have all these people be receptive of it.”
King said it took a few viewings to get to the point where she was able to appreciate the artistry of the film and the message it was trying to convey.
“Life imitates art, yes, but in that moment am I like, ‘Oh my god Tampa is so beautiful, this is an artistic moment?’ Hell no, I’m like, what’s going on,” King said.
For “Zola” director Janicza Bravo, filming in Florida, Tampa in particular, was essential to the look and feel of telling #TheStory through film. Bravo was struck by the Tampa Bay area’s “overtly Lynchian veneer” when filming “Zola” at the end of 2018.
“Most of our movie takes place indoors, in motel rooms, hotel rooms and strip clubs,” she said. “You can replicate these spaces anywhere in America, but the light in Florida is unlike anywhere else. There isn’t a duplicate.”
Local viewers will certainly spot more than a dozen familiar sights in “Zola”—from the Dolphin Beach Resort on St. Pete Beach and the Westshore Grand in Tampa to the truck off Interstate-4 painted with “Jesus Saves” and the Royal Palm Motel on Nebraska Avenue. The light, colors and texture of these locales were “exactly what the story called for,” according to Bravo.
“Strange feels too simple a description, but while Florida marches to its own beat in general, Tampa's textures are singular, and we needed them,” she said. “That atmosphere of heat and sweat and discomfort kind of creeps into you because it plays such a huge part in the movie.”
“Zola” ends with the four main characters driving over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, the bright light of the Florida sun and stunning blues of the sky, the Bay and the Gulf countering the chaotic energy inside the dark SUV—Stefani kind of, sort of apologizing to Zola for everything she just put her through and Zola tuning out her and the actively-bleeding Derek in back seat.
The film is part social satire, part cautionary tale and part comedic thriller, grounding itself in enough wry humor and Florida absurdity to not feel too scary even in its most intense moments.
“A’Ziah’s story has a Shakespearean quality about it,” Bravo said. “The Story was already told in a three-act structure, with a clear beginning, middle and end, but what attracted me most was its humor. At its core, it deals with subject matter that is not humorous at all, but when I read those tweets, I was astonished by how A’Ziah was able to make the ordeal so funny.”
For King, the release of “Zola” in 2021 is “perfect timing” to open more conversations about the stark differences between consensual sex work and nonconsensual trafficking. She also said the film is something to look forward to, especially as #TheStory brought the internet together and resonated with so many people in different ways.
“This was a moment on the internet. We all kind of experienced it together,” she said. “So, I think people feel like this film, that they too were a part of it. We’ve all been on this journey together.”
Tampa Bay sex workers looking for a safe space to share resources and ask for help should consult the Sex Worker Solidarity Network, a queer sex worker led collective in solidarity with all liberation (813- 816-2796; [email protected]). If you believe you are a victim of human trafficking or suspect an adult is a victim of human trafficking, please visit the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, or call them at 1-888-373-7888. If you suspect a child is a victim, please call the Florida Abuse Hotline 24/7 at 1-800-96-ABUSE.
UPDATED: 07/01/21 11:15 a.m. Updated because A’Ziah ‘Zola’ King is not the actress, but inspiration for the film.
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