Zoo (2007)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Robinson Devor

Writers:

Robinson Devor (writer)
Charles Mudede (writer)

Release Date:

30 May 2008 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

We are not who we appear to be.

Plot:

A look at the life of a Seattle man who died as a result of an unusual encounter with a horse. |

Plot Keywords:

Horse | Small Town | Male Full Frontal Nudity | Reenactment | Disturbing

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Coyote	...	Himself
Jenny Edwards	...	Herself
John Edwards	...	Himself
John Paulsen	...	Mr. Hands
Ron Carrier	...	The Happy Horseman
Russell Hodgkinson	...	H
Tom Gormally	...	The Polishman
Forest Fousel	...	Capitol Hill man (as Forest L. Fousel)
Brad Harrington	...	Bremerton man
Andrew Scott McIntyre	...	Military man (as Andrew McIntyre)
Richard Carmen	...	Mr. Hands' brother
Ken Kreps	...	Mr. Hand's father
Malayka Gormally	...	Mr. Hands' wife
Conor Gormally	...	Mr. Hands' son
Robert Padilla	...	The rancher
Janine Rose Schweickert	...	The rancher's wife
Paul Eenhoorn	...	Lead detective
Michael J. Minard	...	Cop #1 (as Michael Minard)
Robert Power	...	Detective #2
Melissa Albin	...	Additional Voice Talent (voice)
Jessica Aceti	...	The Stewardess
Susan M. Carr	...	Coyote's Mother (as Susan Carr)
Bob Fink	...	Emergency room doctor
Karl Holzheimer	...	The Photographer
Marjorie Maler	...	The Unknown Girl
Bill McQuaid	...	The Hunter
Don Reid	...	The Pilot
Patrick Shoe	...	Male Nurse
Patricia Watson	...	Female Nurse
Somebody's Baby	...	Animal
Jonah	...	Animal
Pete	...	Animal
Terry	...	Animal
Carson	...	Animal
Grady	...	Animal
Diesel	...	Animal
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rush Limbaugh	...	Himself (archive sound) (uncredited)

Directed by
Robinson Devor

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Robinson Devor		writer
Charles Mudede		writer

Produced by
Peggy Case	....	producer
Ben Exworthy	....	executive producer
Alexis Ferris	....	producer
Garr Godfrey	....	executive producer
Megan Griffiths	....	co-producer
Daniel Katz	....	executive producer
Randy Manis	....	executive producer
Jeff Sackman	....	executive producer
Mark Urman	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Paul Matthew Moore

Cinematography by
Sean Kirby

Film Editing by
Joe Shapiro

Production Design by
Jeanne Cavenaugh

Art Direction by
Alison Kelly

Set Decoration by
Kimberly Diehl

Costume Design by
Doris Black

Makeup Department
Jennifer Popochock	....	special makeup effects artist

Production Management
Joe Shapiro	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ben Dobyns	....	first assistant director
Megan Griffiths	....	first assistant director
Mischa Jakupcak	....	second assistant director
Rachel Temerlies	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Angelica Hesse	....	art department intern

Sound Department
Ollie Glatzer	....	sound effects designer
Paul Matthew Moore	....	foley artist
Matt Sheldon	....	sound mixer
Vinnie Smith	....	sound mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Bob Fink	....	still photographer
Adam Forslund	....	assistant camera
Bruce Henderson	....	key grip
Ryan Middleton	....	key grip
Sean Porter	....	gaffer
T.J. Williams Jr.	....	Steadicam operator
T.J. Williams Jr.	....	first assistant camera

Editorial Department
Elisa Haradon	....	assistant editor

Other crew
David Emery	....	animal handler
David Emery	....	animal trainer
Rachel Evans	....	production coordinator
Bob Fink	....	psychiatric consultant (as Bob Fink MD)
Malayka Gormally	....	office support
Elisa Haradon	....	research coordinator
Elizabeth Heile	....	production supporter
Elizabeth Heile	....	researcher
James Hopkins	....	animal handler
Robert Risdall	....	consultant: pathology (as Robert Risdall MD)
Taryn Rux	....	location manager: pick-ups
Rachel Temerlies	....	production coordinator
Paul Yaeger	....	mountain guide / production assistant

Distributors

• THINKFilm (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• MRA Entertainment Group (2007) (Australia) (DVD)
• Revolver Entertainment (2007) (UK) (all media)
• Seven Films (2007) (Greece) (all media)
• Sundance Channel (2007) (USA) (TV)
• THINKFilm (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• THINKFilm (2007) (non-USA) (all media) (sales)

Runtime:

USA:80 min (Sundance Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:R | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (Manitoba) | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Trivia:

The horse performer in this movie was a Thoroughbred mare named 'Somebodys Baby', and is a former successful racehorse. The horse in the incident portrayed was in reality an Arabian stallion.

Eerily beautiful

Zoo is not a docudrama about caging animals but about having sex with them. The film, directed by Robinson Devor, comes out of an incident in 2005 in Enumclaw Washington, a rural community 45 miles southeast of Seattle in which a Boeing engineer died as a result of a perforated colon after having anal intercourse with an Arabian stallion. Known only as Mr. Hands in the film, the deceased man was a divorced father of a young son with a top level job who used his weekends as an escape from a suffocating life style. Since Washington law at the time allowed sex with animals, no one was charged with a crime.

While few object to depriving animals of their freedom in zoos or sending them to slaughterhouses to be ground up for hamburgers, the thought of men having sex with animals stirs up reservoirs of righteous indignation and the incident became fodder for the media and Internet message boards which approached it with typical scorn and ridicule. Devor uses a combination of audio interviews with actual participants and reenactments from actor stand-ins to attempt to shed some light on what actually happened. The film delivers neither judgment of the practice nor evaluation of the psychology behind it but simply raises the question whether zoophilia is simply another form of sexual orientation or whether it constitutes abuse of a being incapable of giving consent.

Shot in muted colors, Zoo has a lyrical and poetic style with a moving sound track that gives the film an air of something forbidden but also something eerily beautiful. Bringing a taboo subject out of the darkness and subjecting it to some light, the film allows us to reexamine our preconceived notions about a practice that has in fact been going on since Ancient Greece. Opening with an interview with Coyote, a coal miner from Virginia who came to Washington to meet like minded friends, the film examines the phenomenon of the "zoophile" community, a group of isolated individuals where such appetites are shared. The men gather at all night parties, talk about their love for animals, and engage in an activity they consider natural but which the rest of the world frowns upon. After he was identified as a participant, one man asks how he could be a good man yesterday and a bad man today but the question remains unanswered.

We hear the voices of some of the members of the group but only Jenny Edwards of the organization "Hope for Horses" speaks directly to the camera. While the thrust of her remarks are humane, her participation in a dramatization of the gelding of the horse involved is disturbing and is certainly done without the horses consent. Zoo neither endorses sex with animals nor condemns it but simply empathizes with the humanity of the participants who, for one reason or another, prefer anonymous sex as Richard Gere put it in Pretty Woman, "without all the emotional hassles" of relationships. By doing so, the issue is removed from the level of abstraction and the death is made heartbreakingly real.