THE ZOO

“THE ZOO” and writer CHARLES MUDEDE

KENNETH PINYAN (b.1960~d.2005)

Movie Trailer – “The Zoo”

Remember the story a couple of years ago about the guy in Washington State that had sex with a horse and died shortly after? The story was so shocking that the victims name was withheld from the press for a while, but finally revealed as Kenneth Pinyan, 45, a divorced father and engineer with Boeing in Seattle. He and a couple of Internet pals shared the same sexual desires over horses and video cameras, and a “session” on July 2, 2005 ended his life. The setting was a small horse community of Enumclaw in the shadow of Mt. Ranier, not far from Seattle. One of the “players” videoed the act, and somehow the thing got on the WWW as these sex movies will, and of course, it’s still floating around, and no, you won’t find it here, but if you’ve forgotten, it is often referred to as “Mr. Hands.” It’s graphic, and so bad that if you get caught with it at work, you probably will be ushered off the property sans an exit interview with HR. The video got the name from the user-nick Pinyan had in his Yahoo profile, “Mrhands60,” which for reasons beyond me, is still available on Yahoo. In fact, the picture here, cropped by me of the adult nature, is thanks to Yahoo, who really ought to charge somebody with purging this kind of morbid shit for the sake of the living family. (Consider your own legacy, geez-us).

Anyhow, almost immediately following the incident, legislators in the State of Washington motivated themselves to get a law on the books to legally attempt to curtail this type of behavior between human and beast, making them the 38th State in the Union to make bestiality a crime. Yes, you read that right – you can play “Old MacDonald” in many areas of the Country, free from legal prosecution. Persecution is usually worse these days, anyway. Now, the story is hitting theaters around the nation, titled “The Zoo.”

“‘Sexual contact’ means any contact, however slight, between the sex organ or anus of a person and the sex organ, mouth, or anus of any animal, or any intrusion, however slight, of any part of the body of the person into the sex organ or anus of an animal, for the purpose of sexual gratification or arousal of the person. Evidence of emission of semen is not required to prove sexual contact.”

What you read, had it been a synopsis of “The Zoo,” no doubt, would have made the film this summer’s sensation. In actuality, the aforementioned is language from the Washington State Bill, unanimously passed into law February a year ago. I mean, come on. What barn yard bozo was going to vote “no?” The drafters were going to include some type of Internet language, but decided it would be to difficult to enforce.

If you’re thinking “The Zoo” is going to provide this type of “insight,” then this is not the movie for you. Thankfully, for me, anyway, it’s not there. I caught a showing of this at Sundance in January, and was sorely disappointed in that this tragic story was somehow displaced and I left the theater wondering what mentally killed Kenneth Pinyan surely long prior to the death of his physical being. From reaction of the crowd in attendance, I do not believe I was alone in thought. Probably the best depiction of the whole mess was written in a story by Charles Mudede titled, “The Animal in You,” appearing in his column in Seattle’s paper, “The Stranger,” in late February, 2006. It’s too long to reprint here, but when you have time, hit the link and read – it is outstanding. Charles, who also was the screenwriter for “The Zoo,” superbly told the story in his article of the man, normal by day and polar opposite at night, and the “The Zoo” would have been the perfect “ride” as to the “why,” but I just didn’t see it. The following are excerpts from comments of review of Sundance from me and Charles on the /Film website:

“Those who were laughing were laughing because we wanted them to laugh. not the laughter of the gums but the laughter of the idea–in the original Greek sense of that word, which is equal in meaning to the universal forms beyond particular appearances. when one of the narrators who is mixing drinks and preparing for guests, horse lovers from around the world, to arrive, says: “it’s like anywhere else in America. people are doing this sort of thing every weekend.” if you are not laughing at both the connotation and the denotation of this then we are sorry that is not the case. the thing you must remember is cosmic laughter which comes, for us as artists, very close to universal sorrow. it’s sad that you are not very bright, as critic (you might be good at other things), but the film is really packed with these kinds of difficult insights.” ~ Charles Mudede

“Charles~If you had stayed true to your account in, “The Animal In You,” (great piece) and given us a movie with some inkling into the mind of a man driven (no pun) to his death by this practice/fetish/cult (?), maybe I would have understood the film. Sure, sex with animals is rough subject, but who didn’t know of this shocking event some two years ago? The disgusting video is still making the rounds on-line. I just left with the same, if not more questions as to – ‘why?’ I cannot believe there are an equal amount of people across America either mixing drinks or having ’stall sex’ on the weekends, which too, might have been an interesting angle. But there again, I don’t drink and never have been around a horse, so without an ‘artists’ insight, I’ll trot along.” ~ Outeasy
My “Overall’s? Neigh, and Happier Trails!”

“EVERYBODY IS UP TO SOMETHING” sm