Zoo - R1 (America)
R1 - America - ThinkFilm
Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (31st October 2007).
The Film

In the distance, there's a small, blurry light in a black screen. It's moving around and you're not sure what you're seeing. It's far away, but it soon gets closer and closer, more and more in focus. You eventually learn what it is and understand what it was at first.


This documentary is about a very touchy subject, yet it never becomes exploitative or even judgmental. It's about a man who bled to death after an encounter with a horse, which didn't like what the man was doing.


Oddly enough, this documentary isn't what you'd expect it to be. There's actually no documentary footage at all. There's no footage of anything as it happened, or any real news footage. With the exception of one little bit of interview footage, everything in this documentary is directed and reenacted. Throughout the documentary, though, there are interviews with various, from friends of the dead man, to people who didn't even know him at all, but who visited the farm where everything took place to pick up some horses.


At first, you're not too sure what you're listening to, but it soon becomes apparent. The most the movie goes on, the more you can piece together what happened and what you were listening to before. Whether you're disgusted or not is based your personal feelings because there's nothing seen in this movie that is in bad taste, and even in the interviews with the participants are very careful.


Director Robinson Devor took great care and had great intelligence to present this subject matter in a sensitive way. He never let the topic get out of hand or outside the realm of professionalism. The documentary is enlightening and provocative. It may be a taboo topic, but it's a fascinating watch.

Video

1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Shot on a lower-end DV camera, the picture looks pretty rough and kind of grainy. The colours are kind of subdued, and a lot of the movie is very dark. There's certainly a lot of mosquito noise, which is pretty obviously seen. The contrast is okay, and the black level is very strong. The colours are also nice. The movie has a very special look, and the picture keeps that look.

Audio

The only audio track is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. The movie has an ever-present, lulling, languorous score, and dialogue. The dialogue and score are crystal clear. The dialogue is centered and is never muffled. The score takes up the front sound field very nicely, creating some very nice atmosphere.

English (HoH) subtitles are provided.

Extras

The only real extra here is an audio commentary by director/writer Robinson Devor and writer Charles Mudede. These two men provide a very nice commentary. They talk about what they wanted to do with their documentary, and how they went about doing it. They talk about staging the various scenes and how they changed the geography of the real place to the spot where they shot. They also talk a lot about the real events and the people they interviewed. Humanising the men in the movie is also discussed, and they tell you how they tried to do that. They fill in all the little details that the movie can’t give you, and it makes for a great addition to the movie.


There's also a Trailer Gallery with trailers for 'In the Shadow of the Moon' (2:23), 'The Trials of David Hunt' (2:29), 'Ghosts of Cité Soleil' (2:15), 'Shortbus' (3:05) and 'Tideland' (2:05).

Overall

The Film: B- Video: B- Audio: B Extras: C Overall: C+

 

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