Interview: ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ Writer/Director Benh Zeitlin

Meet Benh Zeitlin. I always love coming across young up-and-coming filmmakers. In January earlier this year he broke out with a little film called Beasts of the Southern Wild that exploded out of Sundance, with awards and critical praise. The film went on to play at the Cannes Film Festival, where Benh won the Camera d’Or. I saw it at both Sundance and Cannes and fell in love with it (my glowing review), it’s one of my favorites of the year as well. I’ve been anxious to chat with Benh about “Beasts” ever since Sundance and finally got the chance, as Fox Searchlight is debuting Beasts in limited theaters this week. Interview below! As I wrote in my original review of this at Sundance: “Beasts of the Southern Wild, directed by Benh Zeitlin and created by the collective Court 13, is an utterly phenomenal piece cinema, an astounding, mesmerizing, heartbreaking, wonderful …