New Orleans Film Society

Friday 2/1/2013

NOFS executive director Jolene Pinder was on the ground in Park City for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where Louisiana film Beasts of the Southern Wild was the talk of the town, taking home three major awards (including the Grand Jury Prize) and getting bought by Fox Searchlight. The following is Jolene’s first-hand account of the festival and her witnessing the Beasts explosion, as well as her interview with Josh Penn, one of the film’s producers.

“Fresh from the wintry streets of Park City, one word still rings in my head, a word that was on the tip of the collective Sundance tongue all week long: BEASTS.

“The New Orleans Film Society was quick to announce the world premiere of Beasts of the Southern Wild back in December. The part-myth, part-dream tale of an imaginary place called ‘The Bathtub’ and its community of inspired denizens was shot in Louisiana and made by Court 13, a self-described ‘grassroots, independent filmmaking army’ based here in New Orleans. One soldier in the army happens to also be a member our ranks. Producer Josh Penn is an active member of the Advisory Board for the New Orleans Film Society and Director Benh Zeitlin lives in New Orleans. Back in April, the New Orleans Film Society screened Court 13’s short film, ‘Glory at Sea,’ as part of a showcase of Louisiana films and local filmmakers. (The film won the Best Narrative Short Prize at the 2008 New Orleans Film Festival.)

“Watching Beasts of the Southern Wild was definitely a highlight of my week at Sundance. The film centers on a six-year-old girl named Hushpuppy who is determined to forge a path for survival in a precarious land nearly swallowed up by the elements and forced to overcome an ancient threat.

“Experiencing Beasts was almost as exciting as watching it. A sizable crew (60 to 70) from Louisiana trekked to Park City—some by air, some by land (in caravans of the 15-passenger variety)—to be there as this piece of rogue cinema, three years in the making, came alive for Sundance audiences. On a street corner, at a party, at a screening: there were members of this sprawling and generous Beasts family. The filmmaking itself—unquestionably singular and refreshingly epic—set this film apart from the rest of the indie narratives at Sundance. Audiences were taken with Zeitlin’s keen sense of how to create a world as yet unseen, with its own language, rules, and even creatures. We were also taken with the spirit behind the filmmaking, an ethos made manifest by the presence of Beasts collaborators milling about Park City.

“When I spoke with Josh Penn, he was still reeling from the excitement of the premiere: ‘Sundance was overwhelming, surreal, exciting. It is sorta indescribable. We had this film in our own bubble for three years and we knew we loved it but you don’t really know what it is outside of your own attachments and biases. Then all of a sudden it was out there in the world and it went over better than any of us could have hoped. Just hearing people have an emotional reaction to the film—learning what it meant to them or how it affected them during Q+As—that was the highlight for me. It was all pretty incredible,’ he said.

“I was at a panel at Slamdance when moderator Paul Rachman broached the subject of Court 13’s truly collaborative model of filmmaking to the two panelists, 2011 NOFF alum Jonathan Demme and Neil Young. He marveled at how Court 13 corralled talent and gumption from a large pool of collaborators to create a gem like Beasts, positing that this model might stand as an alternative to the mass film production model that so often lacks authenticity and limits the amount of ownership those involved can feel over the finished product.

“The Court 13 team found their story’s home at the edge of Louisiana and one of its storytellers, a schoolteacher, warns Hushpuppy: ‘Any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled.’ What I find most inspiring (after having seen the film and experienced its premiere) is how the Court 13 family took us to an edge of cinematic possibility and unraveled conventions around how films can be crafted. I felt this all in watching the film and then at the end of writing this piece, I stumbled upon Benh Zeitlin’s artistic statement about the film. From the opening paragraph: ‘Someone’s ability to bake doughnuts or laugh loud is just as good a reason to make them a dolly grip as their ability to push a dolly. I want to fill my life and my films with wild, brave, good-hearted people. Whatever amount of chaos and disaster that leads to doesn’t matter, because you’re going through it with the people you love, and in the end, no matter what, the movies come out wild, brave, and good-hearted; and that’s more important to me than smooth dolly moves.’

“These are just my musings, nothing like an actual review. Fret not—there are reviews aplenty for this film. You can find a few here and here and here."