Beasts of the Southern Wild and Dirty Ecology

In examining Benh Zeitlin's surreal "Beasts of the Southern Wild," Patricia Yaeger applies her passion for luminous trash to interpreting an epic film about toxic inequality, the southern imaginary, and the possibilities of mythmaking for the twenty-first century. Thus, she describes this film as carrying the nation's baggage as it investigates a culture of racial neglect, creates a zone of history-making for Katrina's disposable bodies, and provides a steady critique of white capital.