hot docs: zoo

director robinson devor’s zoo depicts through interviews and re-enactments the story of a seattle man’s death in 2005. the man died of a perforated colon due to engaging in intercourse with a horse at a gathering of zoophiles on a washington farm. devor constructs the story out of order, cutting between establishing the psychology of the zoophiles involved and the lead up to the actual event of the man’s death. it was obvious that devor was extremely careful to not pass judgment on this group of people, and to treat the situation delicately. the film portrays these men as misunderstood and somewhat alienated from healthy human connections. we never see the actual people involved, only re-enactments (for privacy reasons i assume), but we do hear their voices in the voice-over. it is nearly impossible to distinguish the voices from one another, giving the sense that they are all speaking as a unified group. much of the film is dark and sets an eerie mood when the events leading up to the death are recounted for us. conversely, when we are hearing some of these men discuss the emotional connections they have with animals (sexual relations are barely mentioned), the cinematography is quite beautiful; a lot of nighttime outdoor shots with vibrantly coloured flowers, trees, etc. i think devor used this technique of two distinct filming styles to visually reinforce the idea of a spectrum of animal love. because much of what the men discuss is emotional connections, it helps us to move beyond the initial shock of the sex to see that it’s not such a simple distinction between zoophiles and everyone else. i thought devor’s cautious treatment of this subject was effective because i left the theatre not focused on the man’s death, but more on the psyches of zoophiles and where exactly i stand on my beliefs about them.