Zoo, a film by The Stranger columnist Charles Mudede and director Robinson Devor, and executive producers Garr Godfrey and Ben Exworthy, is a documentary on the life and death of Kenneth Pinyan, a Seattle area man who died unusually after engaging in sex with a horse. The film's public debut was at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007, where it was one of 16 winners out of 856 candidates,^[1] and played at numerous regional festivals in the USA thereafter.^[2] Following Sundance, it was also selected as one of the top five American films to be presented at the "prestigious" Directors Fortnight sidebar at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.^{[3] [4]}

The director and festival shortlist producers describe the film as:

"The complete antithesis of what you expect ... To begin with, 'Zoo' is neither graphic nor exploitive. Most of it takes the form of recreations, but from the point of view of the men 'who met for years without disturbance in the shadows of Mt. Rainier,' as Devor puts it." ^[5]

"I aestheticized the sleaze right out of it." - Devor ^[6]

"This was a guy who was a conservative man at one point, and those ideas started breaking down for him. I think that 9/11 triggered a lot of it. But he was [also] in the center of one of the most secretive military complexes. Meanwhile, he listened to a lot of left-wing radio, he questioned everything our government was involved in, and he was ethically conflicted about his job and the money he was making. That's the core fascination for me." - Devor, describing his interest in the film's subject. ^[7]

The film was made with co-operation of the two men who took Pinyan to the hospital, as well as other friends of his, in the attempt to explore the life and death of the man, as well as those who came to the farm near Enumclaw for similar reasons, beyond the public understanding of the media. It does contain explicit material of sexual activities, but only in the view of video footage shown on a small television screen.

The Sundance judges called it a 'humanizing look at the life and bizarre death of a seemingly normal Seattle family man who met his untimely end after an unusual encounter with a horse'.

"They called us and were excited about the imagery, the poetry, the experimentation with the documentary form," says Charles Mudede, the film's writer and an editor at the alternative weekly The Stranger. [...] "It's unmentionable... And then strangely, suddenly, in 2005, it becomes the talk of society. How exactly does that happen? How do we go from something being utterly hidden from view, and then suddenly we're consumed with it and so upset by it we need to pass a law?" ^[8]

Title

The movie was originally titled In the Forest There Is Every Kind of Bird,^[9] but is released under the title Zoo, short for zoophile, signifying a person with unusually strong fondness, attraction or romantic interest in animals.

Awards and Recognition

Zoo was one of 16 documentaries selected, out of 856 submitted, for screening at the Sundance Film Festival.^[8]

It was also selected as one of the top five American films to be presented at the "prestigious" Directors Fortnight sidebar at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.^{[10] [11]}

Response

The Seattle Times called it "A tough sell that gets respect at Sundance" ^[12], also noting the local economic effect of landmark films which put a location "on the map". IndieWIRE movies calls it "one of the most beautiful films of the year" and noted that "without sensation" it steps back to a "non-traditional" viewpoint and concludes that "Devor makes a persuasive, provocative and deeply profound case for tolerance and understanding in the face of the seemingly most incomprehensible of acts". IndieWIRE and "Zoo achieves the seemingly impossible: It tells the luridly reported tale of a Pacific Northwest businessman’s^[13] fatal sexual encounter with a horse in a way that’s haunting rather than shocking and tender beyond reason." OC (Orange County) Weekly. Similar views were expressed by the L.A. Times ("remarkably, an elegant, eerily lyrical film has resulted") and the Toronto Star ("gorgeously artful ... one of the most beautifully restrained, formally distinctive and mysterious films of the entire festival").

A few review sites, such as IMDB, contained reviews commenting on originality and difference from usual films, in positive tones. ^[14]

Among the mass media, a small number of reviews criticized the film for breaching "the last taboo", or for sinking to new depths: "More compelling than the depths of man's degeneracy is our cultural rationalization of "art," whereby pushing the envelope is confused with genius and scuttling the last taboo is seen as an expression of sophistication." ^[15], and SouthFlorida.com forums obtained over two thousand posts within days mostly castigating the makers with dismay.

Notes

See also

• Kenneth Pinyan
• Zoophilia
• Sundance Film Festival

External links

• The Sundance Film Festival home page
• The Sundance Film Festival page on the movie
• Media report in The Seattle Times, 3 December 2006
• Zoo Film Review at OhmyNews International
• LA Times editorial, the week of Sundance, Jan 22 2007
• Netscape News interview with Devor, 1/23/07
• Emanuellelevy.com, Zoo: Inside the Controversial Documentary about Bestiality Full background and analysis of the film