Zoo

Zoo (2007)

Through interviews and recreation, Zoo tells the story of "zoos," or men who "love" animals, through a group of men involved in the fatal incident involving man-horse love.

Date of release
2007-01-20
TMDB
4.8 / 10 (66)
Runtime
1h 16m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Robinson Devor

Interesting facts

Zoo is a 2007 American documentary film based on the life and death of Kenneth Pinyan. This American man died of peritonitis due to perforation of the colon after engaging in receptive anal sex with a horse. The film combines audio testimony from people involved in the case or who were familiar with Pinyan, "with speculative re-enactments that feature a mix of actors and actual subjects".

Production

On their reasoning for wanting to make a documentary about the Enumclaw case, Robinson Devor and Charles Mudede said when the news story first broke in 2005, it quickly became a punch line in the media. Said Mudede, "There seemed to be two responses: repulsion or laughter. People didn’t want to have any connection or identification with these men. Early on Rob and I said to each other, 'We’re going to revive their humanity.'"

Mudede noted, "It was only after Pinyan died when law enforcement looked for one way to punish his associates, that the legality of bestiality in Washington State became an issue [...] The prosecutor's office wanted to charge Tait with animal abuse, but the police found no evidence of abused animals on the many videotapes they collected from his home…the prosecutors could only charge Tait with trespassing."

Mudede, a journalist at The Stranger, had written an article about the incident and was contacted by one of the participants in the case. Of the participants, called "zoos", Mudede said "there was a desperate need to talk" and to tell their side of the story.

Devor said the film’s biggest challenge was finding locations to shoot, as horse farms in the Seattle area did not want to be associated with the documentary. Said Devor, "Owners would say things like: 'We have Microsoft picnics here. They’re going to think it happened in my barn.'" The production ended up filming in Canada.

The film was originally titled In the Forest There Is Every Kind of Bird, but this was changed to Zoo in a reference to zoophilia.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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