This archive report was first published on 29 June 2021.
June 29, 2021, marked the release of 'Zola,' a movie inspired by a viral Twitter thread about sex trafficking. The thread, posted by A'Ziah 'Zola' King in 2015, detailed her harrowing experience during a trip to Florida.
King's story, which was later featured in a Rolling Stone magazine article, follows a Detroit waitress and exotic dancer named Zola who is convinced by a customer, Stefani, to travel to Florida for a weekend. However, the trip takes a sinister turn when Zola realizes they are traveling with a pimp who has other intentions.
'What I do is sex work and that's what I'm used to and that's what I'm confident in doing,' King said in an interview. 'But the difference here is I was put into a situation that the conversation turned into sex trafficking.'
King's account of the trip, which she later admitted to embellishing, sparked a heated debate on social media, with some of those she named in the tweets disagreeing with her depiction of events.
'I'm a completely different person in a completely different space,' King said about watching her story unfold on the big screen. 'At this point in time when I watch the movie, I can enjoy the artistic side of it... This is many different conversations. This is a sex work conversation, this is a race conversation. This is a feminism conversation.'
The movie 'Zola' features Taylour Paige as Zola and Riley Keough as Stefani. Director Janicza Bravo brought King's story to life, reminding the cast that the film was an interpretation of an interpretation of a perception and that it was meant to be an exaggerated version.
