Zoo

Directed by Robinson Devor, and co-written by Charles Mudede and Devor, Zoo centers around the case of Kenneth Pinyan, a Seattle aircraft engineer at Boeing who died in 2005 after performing a sexual act with a horse. Narrated in a lyrical yet restrained, formally distinctive style, Zoo 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. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and later screened at the Cannes Film Festival Directors’ Fortnight that same year.

“Zoo strives to liberate Mr. Hands [Pinyan] from his posthumous fate as tabloid punch line. It allows the friends of the dead man a means for disclosure and dares to find, in their candid accounts of their desires and the hidden worlds where they were fulfilled, something strangely beautiful and even recognizable.” (Dennis Lim, The New York Times)

Presented as the February 2023 edition of Staff Picks.

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