TimesTalk Madrid with Benh Zeitlin

It's sort of like being a football coach. In a way it's good practice for a director because often times you over-intellectualize what you're giving to an actor but you have to talk very simply and you have to speak very emotionally [to a 6-year-old]. It wasn't like she just walked onto set, we worked on the character for 3 months... she really did understand what she was doing but the way that we would get to that place, as opposed to talking out the psychology of the character, I'd tell her, this is a scene where you're really angry, and she'd say "Am I yellow angry, red angry, or purple angry?" and I'd say, "well what's the highest anger?" and she'd say "well, purple is the highest." And I'd say, "ok, I want purple." And she'd say "No. You don't want purple. You don't even wanna see purple. I'll give you red but no purple." -- Benh Zeitlin on directing Quvenzháne Wallis

The New York Times collaborated with the city of Madrid in bringing speakers from the disciplines of film, theater, and music and hosting conversations at their TimesTalk Madrid series.  This past Sunday, September 23rd, they presented an incredible conversation with Benh Zeitlin and New York Times media columnist David Carr, following Beasts of the Southern Wild's Madrid debut.

Alibar Dispatch from Films by the Sea

Lucy Alibar is currently stationed in the Netherlands where Beasts opened the 14th international Films by the Sea film festival.  In between Q&A's, she's been reporting back on her day-to-day and it looks amazing!

Did a great Q and A tonight, the last one here.

Here is the view outside my window.

Incredible audience in Vlissengen — big hearts, ravenous minds.  Awards ceremony tomorrow!

Stay tuned for more snapshots from the Awards ceremony soon.

Welcome To My Bathtub

There is a very small town in Kentucky called Allensville, a farming town, a place where friends gather.

— Stephen Capps

Despite being an imaginary place, “The Bathtub” hit home with people all over the world.  It made us realize everyone has their own special place somewhere. A place where you feel understood, a home -- a place fiercely loved and fiercely protected.

Inspired by the testimonials we heard, we asked fans to take a minute and send us a photo and share their own personal Bathtub.

Down the street from where I live in Maryland is a state park: Patapsco State Park, named for the river that runs through it. 

This bend in the river is my favorite spot. It's more of a solitary than a community attachment, I suspect. Many people march right by, on their way to the rapids a quarter mile up the trail, which the guide map tells you that you WANT to see; where there are picnic tables, then up a hill to a parking lot. 

But when I stand at this bend, I feel the power of the universe surging through me, then pulling me in all directions, kind of like Hushpuppy verbalizes in the film. In fact, when she uttered that line, my riverbend flashed through my mind...

— Cindy Rosenberg

In a hammock with my boyfriend is my bathtub.

— Ricky Emmons

My Bathtub is a blanket fort with my girlfriend.

— Dalton Day

My Bathtub is my parents' garden in the Cotswolds, south west England.

— Emily Kinder

My Bathtub's name was Engavaagen. I lived there for nine months, six years ago. A day doesn't go by without me thinking of it.

When I was nineteen my parents told me that they could either send me to a university for a year or abroad. It wasn't a difficult decision. My parents weren't very well off, but they somehow sent me to one of the richest countries in the world; Norway. My parents were of an evangelical Christian persuasion, so they sent me to a sort of religious international boarding school for young missionaries. The boarding school was just outside of a small Norwegian town above the arctic circle, a stone's throw away from the shores of a fjord. You could walk to the tip of the peninsula and look out to sea. The islands dotted the horizon and the mountains circled round you. 

Part of me thinks it is wrong to say that Engavaagen is my Bathtub. As I watched Beasts of the Southern Wild I was saddened to know that there is no place like that currently in my life, no community. Engavaagen wasn't mine, it didn't "make" me . . . not like it made the Norwegians who grew up there. But I loved it, I loved it. I walked and walked and walked around it and loved the sky and the sea and the islands and every inch of it, as though it were a person and not a place. 

I was sent to Engavaagen to grow in my faith and to get closer to God. God and I are no longer on speaking terms and I have no religion to speak of, but Engavaagen remains. After I left, it hurt to even look at a picture of it or talk about it very much. One day I'll try to go back, but plane tickets to Norway run about $2,000 these days. A vacation like that will be beyond me for at least five more years. I might not be meant to go back.

Now I live in Portland, Oregon, and I think my task is to carry and plant Bathtubs and Engavaagens wherever I happen to be. Or at least, not to pine for something far off and ignore the place in front of me. 

— Marylin H

Fiercely protecting this little corner of my universe for over 40 years! My Bathtub is my back yard in Minneapolis, MN, USA!

— Vicki MacNabb

The bathtub in my back garden, Capetown, South Africa.

— Bryan Little

Email us (beasts@beastsofthesouthernwild.com) a photo or illustration of a place that you consider YOUR Bathtub, put ‘Welcome to My Bathtub’ in the subject line, or tweet it to @thebathtubber, using #mybathtub and we’ll add it to our website.

Quickflix interviews Benh Zeitlin

Going back to Quvenzhané, were you concerned at all about dragging, I believe, a then six-year-old girl through some pretty emotional trials? It's a tough part. BZ: Yeah, you know, it was a real long process of trying to make sure that she felt comfortable going to those places and it took a little bit of work. Figuring out the way that she felt comfortable stepping into some of those scenes. There eventually had to be - and this had to do with the casting of Dwight - we weren't going to be able to do the film with method acting, and just completely... we weren't able to have someone play Wink that was going to be in character all the time; [where] even when we'd call cut, he'd be kind of scary and tough on her. But Dwight is this incredibly sweet man, so even in these scenes where he'd be so harsh on her and so angry, the moment we would call cut, he would go back to his wonderful self. That really helped her a lot; just knowing that we were playing make believe and she could go back to the real world. The minute we would cut the camera, it was back to having fun and playing games.

Read the whole thing at Quickflix.

Bathtub Artists

Above illustration by Julian Birchman. Beasts was made with the fundamental belief that a creative community of friends is the best recipe for good art. From songs to poems to paintings, we've been totally in awe of the art that people have produced in response to our film.  We're slowly building an archive of all the different Beasts-inspired art and media that we've come across online, check out a selection below!  

Mixed media by Tracy Blanchard.

Digital painting by Helena McGill.

Auroch painting by Kathryn Vita.

Instagram by Morgan Marinoff.

Digital painting by Lisa Jane Persky.

Drawing by Chris Melberger.

Painting by Heather Murray.

Auroch drawing by activateharpoon.

Drawing by Jess Chen and Sierra Ulrich

Illustration by Jorge Melgoza.

We want to see what you've made!

If Beasts inspired you to make something, we'd be honored to share in that. Email us documentation — photos, videos, writing, etc. — at beasts@beastsofthesouthernwild.com.