Interview. Charles Mudede. Zoo.

"Back in 2005, when the Seattle Times reported on the 'Enumclaw Horse Sex Incident,' the story spread like wildfire across the Internet and became their most-read story of the year," writes Andy Spletzer at the main site.

Andy's introducing his interview with writer Charles Mudede, who, with director Robinson Devor, is following up their poetic feature Police Beat with one of the most controversial Sundance entries this year, Zoo.

Update, 1/21: For the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan talks with Devor about this "elegant, eerily lyrical film."

Updates, 1/22: "It would be ludicrous to claim that Zoo dispels prejudice against people who have sex with animals; these men themselves understand that their practices are not socially acceptable," notes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "But at some level this film will confuse and surprise you."

Also: David D'Arcy, right here.

Update, 1/23: Karina Longworth at Netscape: "Surely some viewers will be turned off by the director's refusal to clearly condemn or condone the lifestyle at the center of Zoo. But Devor is adamant about the film's neutrality. Drawing a moral, he says, is 'too one-dimensional, too easy. Everyone's going to want their own agenda, stated clearly. That we cannot give them, because then we're just a mouthpiece. That's not our job.'"

Updates, 1/24: "[O]ne of the most beautiful films of the year, let alone at Sundance," writes Anthony Kaufman at indieWIRE. "By creating such a ravishingly beautiful film, by contrasting the stunning images of nature against the cool environs of civilization (a scene in which a horse is castrated seems far more cruel to the animal than a one-night-stand), Devor makes a persuasive, provocative and deeply profound case for tolerance and understanding in the face of the seemingly most incomprehensible of acts."

The IFC's Alison Willmore calls it "the most beautiful, most unexpectedly prurient, and, yes, only documentary about zoophilia we've ever seen.... In the interests of avoid easy sensationalism and of his admirable and aggressive humanism, Devor avoids the sexual aspect of zoophilia more than zoophiles themselves would likely deem fair - they, after all, may feel love, but they also made considerably earthier home movies.... Forgive us, but we could have done with more horse fucking."

Update, 1/25: "[A]n intriguing but not wholly satisfying affair," writes Ben Walters for Time Out. "Structured around reconstructions, the film's somewhat heightened aesthetic - dreamlike photography, woozy score, the occasional jarringly banal detail - is quite effective on its own terms but Zoo ultimately feels a little coy about the nub of the issue, offering an intriguing context for the taboo sex acts at its core but shying away from the queasy, invasive questions they will provoke in anyone's mind."

Update, 1/26: "Devor has created a deliberate disjunction between sound and image, and if his interviews with the zoophile community and others associated with the incident clearly constitute nonfiction, the pictures that accompany those words—lyrical recreations, inventions, and allusions—are as vividly imaginative as anything in the oeuvres of Terrence Malick or Claire Denis," writes Mike D'Angelo at ScreenGrab. "Sounds awesome, no? But like Devor's previous film, Police Beat, which screened here two years ago, Zoo strikes me as an eminently admirable muddle, fascinating in conception but frustrating in execution."

Updates, 1/29: For Time, Rebecca Winters Keegan reports on the hoopla Zoo kicked up; it "caused festival goers to launch into heated debates on the shuttle buses and in the cafes of Park City about such unlikely subjects as whether a stallion can actually give consent and precisely how he might do so. Taxi drivers in town asked their passengers, 'Have you seen the horse sex movie?'"

Tom Hall: "Without question, my favorite film at Sundance."

Updates, 1/30: Eric Kohn for the New York Press: "Given the radical subject matter, the most remarkable feat of Zoo is that it's boring."

Kathy Fennessey talks with Devor for the Siffblog. Part the Second. Part the Third. Part the Fourth.

Coverage of the coverage: The Park City Index.

Posted by dwhudson at January 20, 2007 4:57 AM