Blogger Linda Leinen on Beasts and Serendipity

Blogger Linda Leinen

In a stroke of pure serendipity (okay, Google alerts) we came across Linda Leinen's thoughtful post on how watching Beasts of the Southern Wild inspired her to embark on a personal exploration of her own family's journey.

She shares tales of her great great grandpa David Crowley, who rode out part of his Civil War military service in our home state of Louisiana, and the mysterious discovery of her family crest.

serendipcrest

"It bears a certain resemblance to an auroch, which raises some questions," she writes. "Could that be Grandpa David standing nose to nose with Hushpuppy in The Bathtub? Did Confederate forces experience the Union Army as beasts from the North? Have I found the explanation for my inordinate fondness for hushpuppies?"

Read her whole piece here.

Film Forward Discussion Guides

At the beginning of the year, Beasts of the Southern Wild was selected to participate the Sundance Institute's Film Forward program. "FILM FORWARD is an international touring program designed to enhance greater cultural understanding, collaboration and dialogue around the globe by engaging audiences through the exhibition of films, workshops and conversations with filmmakers."

Through the program, we've been able to share the film with audiences around the world in Jordan, Mexico, Puerto Rico and more. Part of Film Forward's initiative is not only to share films with global audiences but also to encourage dialogue and conversation.

Our friends at Film Forward were kind enough to share their discussion guides with the entire Beasts family. Feel free to use these resources as a guideline in your film group, classroom, church or wherever Beasts is talked about. The PDF's are available for download below:

Film Forward Discussion Guide - Basic discussion questions to kick start conversation about the themes within the film

Film Forward Activation Activities - Generated for classrooms but applicable to anyone, these activation activities help trigger discussion about how the film and its themes relate to viewers on a personal level.

A Dialogue About Race in Beasts of the Southern Wild

Jarvis DeBerry, an editorial writer and columnist at The Times-Picayune in News Orleans, dissects a criticism he has heard about the portrayal of race in Beats of the Southern Wild, and shares his reaction to it

Of course, when your characters are black and celebrate their attachment to nature, when the title of your movie contains the words “beasts” and “wild,” you leave yourself open to accusations of racism, to claims that you see black people as primitive, if not altogether savage. And when your characters ignore the evacuation order that precedes an approaching storm, you might stand accused of romanticizing people who don’t have the sense to come in out of the rain.

As a rural Southerner who has never felt completely at peace in the city and as a New Orleanian who stayed during Hurricane Katrina and interviewed others who did the same, I find both criticisms problematic. Urbanization has been black Americans’ most recent trend, but it is not our historical norm. Thinking of ourselves exclusively as city dwellers helps us forget one of the greatest crimes committed against us: the systematic separation of black folks from their land.

Read the full article at Colorlines.com.

James Beard Q&A with Josh Penn: Food & Beasts

The James Beard Foundation interviewed producer Josh Penn about the role of food in Beasts of the Southern Wild and within film in general.

JP: So much of the culture in the Louisiana bayou is about food, and more specifically, living off the water. It’s intertwined with everything, it defines the community, and is something that we really wanted to capture. Our first day of shooting was actually the day of the BP oil spill. Most people in the area live off the water in some way or another, and the spill threatened their entire lifestyle—because whether or not it’s your livelihood, it’s still the source of what you eat. It’s what’s all around you. It really underscored how food is interwoven into every aspect of life there. And the approach to food and how it should be eaten would obviously be different if we were telling a story about another community. I’m sure they eat crabs pretty differently on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Read the full interview here.

Is Beasts an Eco Fairy Tale?

The rising waters of the untamed Louisiana bayou, melting polar ice caps, and the emergence of apocalyptic Aurochs are images that have defined the film and inspired conversations about climate change and the environment.  Environmental blog Care 2 recently wrote about Beasts of the Southern Wild, focusing on the environmental elements of the film:

The movie set in southern Louisiana and more than a few statements about climate change are placed in Hushpuppy’s mouth. “Everything has to fit together just right. If it doesn’t, it all falls apart,” she says. These words can be applied to a discussion about how our burning of fossil fuels can be linked to the the lessening sea ice in the Arctic and other world-wide effects of global warming.

Do you agree with Care 2's analysis of the film? What is Hushpuppy referring to in the above referenced quote?

Read the full article here.