Benh Zeitlin

Birthday: 14 October 1982, Manhattan, New York, USA

Height: 170 cm

Born in New York City and raised in Sunnyside, Queens and then Westchester County, Benh Zeitlin began his career as a film-maker at the tender age of 6 years when he and a friend made a Batman movie. He continued making films as a child before attending Wesleyan University, where he majored in film. After graduation, Benh spent a summer in Prague w... Show more »

I've been reading a lot of Yoruba mythology actually. It's an African literature tradition. Right no...Show more »

I've been reading a lot of Yoruba mythology actually. It's an African literature tradition. Right now I'm into 'The Forest of a Thousand Daemons' by D. O. Fagunwa. It's the most disturbing and thrilling kind of mythological imagery that I've ever read. It definitely gets your mind cooking. Particularly with writing, you always want things that are cutting up the way you think and challenging your brain to wrap itself around some pretty gigantic concepts. Show less «

[on the origins of making "Beasts"] When I got out of [completing Glory at Sea (2008) ] I was realiz...Show more »

[on the origins of making "Beasts"] When I got out of [completing Glory at Sea (2008) ] I was realizing that I wanted to stay [in Louisiana], I was supposed to go back home, my parents were waiting for me back in New York for Thanksgiving and I didn't show up, and I didn't show up for Christmas, time went by and I realized I wanted to stay, and I wanted to figure out what it was that was pulling me, and also make a film celebrating a lot of the people that were in that cast who were holding out and refusing to get pushed off their land, and trying to rebuild, and wanting to celebrate that tenacity and make a film about the hold outs. That's where it started. Show less «

[on directing six-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)] She was so focu...Show more »

[on directing six-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)] She was so focused and poised and just was fierce. She wouldn't do just what I told her to do, she questioned what I was saying. She'd say, 'I don't like this word' and she'd delete it. I allowed her to own the words and understand what they meant. Show less «

Preproduction is like this little animal that you're raising, and it's like a tiger, and you raise i...Show more »

Preproduction is like this little animal that you're raising, and it's like a tiger, and you raise it until it's way bigger and stronger and faster than you, and you can't control it at all. You just set it loose and then you have to chase it. And so for everybody that worked on 'Beasts,' it was like an athletic event. A safari hunt. With this running beast that you're trying not to be destroyed by...it's always fun. The movies are secondary. The tiger chase comes first. Show less «

[re financial freedom after Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)] I don't know if we'll ever see any m...Show more »

[re financial freedom after Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)] I don't know if we'll ever see any money off of the box office, but we won a couple of very generous awards here and overseas, and they have put me above the poverty line for the first time since I got out of college. We also have a development deal on the new film, and that's helped us have offices, which is also a monumental step forward. Show less «

There are funny stories about [the making of Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) ] how I went knockin...Show more »

There are funny stories about [the making of Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) ] how I went knocking on someone's door and he came out with a shotgun. Even then, that guy showed up at our gas station two days later, and was like, "I'm sorry. I thought you guys were trying to kill me or you're from Witness Protection or something like that. I didn't mean to scare you. You want any red fish?" He'd just caught a bunch. You get real hospitality in Louisiana. I think it'd be much harder in another place because the state is extremely open and a more accepting, hospitable place. Show less «

[Feb 2013] I just got back from the Kustendorf Film Festival in the mountains of Serbia and I saw my...Show more »

[Feb 2013] I just got back from the Kustendorf Film Festival in the mountains of Serbia and I saw my favorite movie of the year, called Reality (2012) by Matteo Garrone. It's about this guy who runs a fish market whose life starts to collapse when he gets the whir of the idea that he might be able to get on a reality television show. It's a film with faces and actors that you've never seen before. It's got this wild energy that reminds me of an early Milos Forman film. Show less «

I'm not against wealth. But when you have a nice place you take a lot fewer risks. You're worried ab...Show more »

I'm not against wealth. But when you have a nice place you take a lot fewer risks. You're worried about making the safe choice because if you don't you might lose that house. And I never want to be in that position. Show less «

[re second feature in mid-production, 2013] The new film is about a young girl who gets kidnapped on...Show more »

[re second feature in mid-production, 2013] The new film is about a young girl who gets kidnapped onto a hidden ecosystem where a tribal war is raging over a form of pollen that breaks the relationship between aging and time. It follows a friendship-love story-adventure of her and a joyous, reckless, pleasure-mongering young boy as they swirl in and out of youth and as the ecosystem around them spirals toward destruction. We're working on it all day every day, but as all psychotic adventures go, you know where your destination is but not how long it's going to take to get there. Show less «

I've never had a strategy. It's never been about I'm going to make this film, and then another...It ...Show more »

I've never had a strategy. It's never been about I'm going to make this film, and then another...It was about telling stories about, and living with, the people I want to spend time with. Show less «

[on "Beasts"] We finished the movie two days before Sundance, and we never had time to think about i...Show more »

[on "Beasts"] We finished the movie two days before Sundance, and we never had time to think about it, basically. There wasn't a month to be like, "What will happen? Will people like this movie?" I was focused on trying to get the movie to a version that I could live with. But it's been an amazing experience to see the film travel this far. It just such was a ragtag little film when we were making it. I don't think anybody ever imagined that the movie would be so big while we were doing it. It's so cool to hear it resonate with people who don't have the same cultural context that we do in Louisiana, never mind in America. It's so crazy. Show less «

The people I really admire, like [John] Cassavetes, live the lives of their movies, and that's how I...Show more »

The people I really admire, like [John] Cassavetes, live the lives of their movies, and that's how I want to live. Show less «

Benh Zeitlin

Benh Zeitlin's FILMOGRAPHY

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