~BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD – YOU FLY !!
HUSHPUPPY !!
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD – A FILM BY BENH ZEITLIN
REVIEWED BY NANCY SMITH. JULY 2, 2012
HUSHPUPPY – SCREENGRAB from the trailer.
if the 30s had the young SHIRLEY TEMPLE. in 2012 – about 80 years later, we have HUSHPUPPY, or more correctly the young 6 year old actress, at the time of the filming (!!) – who plays her: QUVENZHANE WALLIS. why am I thinking her film name is gonna follow her around for life ?
they both have curly hair, and own the camera. BUT that’s where the similarities end, and the fierce metaphors for OUR time arise. no sentimentality here. fierceness all the way “down the drain” of the losers vs. the big ‘machine’ of progress.
yes, HUSHPUPPY makes the case for our dwindling reality. and the power of dreams. the pure storm for – survival.
as does this film, a remarkable, magical, visually rich, emotionally powerful, haunting, passionate and wholly original cry for the world’s increasingly lost souls. it asks all the big questions.
the story is enriched by all the locals – who are cast in the location-centric story, and who help the narrative play out with the kind of utmost power – that comes with the deep inside-out voices – of the native, and authentic ‘players’.
the very first (!!) full-length feature effort of its young American director BEHN ZIETLIN, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, the southern wild being Louisiana, USA (!!) won the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic at this year’s Sundance 2012, and also scored the super prestigious Camera D’or at this year’s Festival de Cannes 2012 – an award that goes to the first-ever film feature of an individual.
a NYC ‘homeboy’ – BENH ZEITLIN was raised in Sunnyside Queens, NYC – and meet his ‘Beasts’ co-writer LUCY ALIBAR at summer camp when they were teenagers. His parents STEVE ZEITLIN and AMANDA DARGAN are both urban folklorists who founded the “popular” non-profit CITY LORE which protects landmarks and seeks to preserve and promote the cultural diversity of New York City.
see: IMDb/bio
I went to see the film the very first day it opened here in NYC, this past Fri June 29, 2012 – with my friend, writer and producer JAN ALBERT, who knows Behn’s dad, from way back – and she related that BENH ZEITLIN went down to help with the flood devastation of New Orleans, and that’s how the film began. the people and place caught fire in his imagination, is the better way to state it.
it’s playing at the SUNSHINE, here in NYC.
it’s a pure cinematic rush !! yes, you want to go see it.
Director BEHN ZEITLIN, the young actress QUVENZHANE WALLIS, aka the glorious HUSHPUPPY !! and DWIGHT HENRY who plays her single dad.
PHOTO: MICHAEL BUCKNER copyright 2012 – GETTY IMAGES, by way of: COLLIDER.COM
watch the TRAILER: BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, hit that central arrow
check out: Welcome to the BATHTUB (!!)
the caveman ink – on the thigh of the Bathtub’s teacher / medicine woman. screengrab from the trailer.
it’s all agonna change.
the icebergs be a crashin’ down, it’s just – the tip !!
. . . of the iceberg.
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF: DAN ASHER & ALEXANDER McQUEEN. NYC artist, and BRIT fashion icon, respectively – who both felt the impending sea change – up close and personal. very (very) fast frame forward.
now, even the little Hushpuppys of the world – see it in their dreams.