Zoo

Photo courtesy of blog.netscape.com

Jennifer:

In Robinson Devor’s film, Zoo, he attempts to look at the mindset of zoophiliacs through a perspective that one may consider “objective”. He uses the case of the Washington man who suffered from a fatal injury due to his sexual relations with a horse. I was unsure about what to expect at the start of the film and was actually really looking forward to an informative documentary on a subject I knew very little about. However, although Devor is successful at not portraying the Zoos as unhealthy, perverted individuals, I was a bit disappointed by how little new knowledge I gained by watching the film.  

I would have liked to see more of the opinions and feelings of the Zoos expressed. I anticipated the film to resemble Bergner’s The Other Side of Desire in that it lucidly and thoughtfully takes a profound look at how the individuals studied view themselves. Unfortunately, I spent most of the time confused about who was speaking and distracted by the visual clips.

Although I felt the film was lacking in its content, I did, however, find the change in the female rescuer’s perspective quite intriguing. At the start of the film, it was obvious how she saw the Zoos and their actions. She considered the relations abusive to the animals and the individuals responsible for these actions, sick and twisted. However, the film ends with her attempting to understand how these relations may have developed due to an extreme love and affection for the animals. Although she never justifies their actions, there is still an evident transformation in her standpoint on the issue, which I found noteworthy.