The American dream — and its dark side — is an endlessly fascinating subject for novelists, songwriters and film-makers, probably because it continues to be such a real part of the American psyche. When, while on a road trip in 2006, director Sam Huntley stopped off at Zoomer’s Treasures, a run-down curiosity shop on a Kansas highway, he found all the optimism, bitterness, joy and despair encapsulated in its eccentric owner Mary DeBoutez Zellmer-Fenoglio. So much so, in fact, that he decided to go back and make a film about her.
Zoomer, a feature-length documentary, is a record of the time that Huntley spent with Zellmer-Fenoglio, learning her unusual story. By all accounts, Zoomer is the kind of person usually dismissed (for want of a subtler phrase) as “poor white trash” — brassy blonde hair, stone-washed denim and a penchant for small fire-arms and swear words. It’s true that Zoomer and her extended circle provide some inadvertently comic moments, but her admirable drive to better herself, to defy the impoverishment, limitations and — as we discover —tragedy of her god-given circumstances, has a poignancy that transcends cheap laughs.
Huntley, who directed the brilliant multi-award winning short “Polish Your Shoes”, plans to enter Zoomer into forthcoming international film festivals, so be sure to watch out for it. For more information visit zoomerfilm.com
February 26th, 2010
