?O, Zoo!: The Making of a Fiction Film is a 1986 experimental Canadian documentary film directed by Philip Hoffman.Robert Everett-Green, "Celluloid experiments". The Globe and Mail, September 6, 1986.
Synopsis Based in part around the making of Peter Greenaway's 1985 film A Zed & Two Noughts and constructed primarily from found footage made by his grandfather who once worked as a newsreel cameraman,Canyon Cinema the film interrogates the distinction between fiction and documentary filmmaking through various meditations on the narrative assumptions and inventions that people attach to the neutrality of visual images; its most noted scene narrates the death of an elephant, without ever actually showing the animal.Joel Rubinoff, "Avant-garde films challenge viewers". Toronto Star, March 13, 1987.
Reception The film premiered at the 1986 Festival of Festivals. It received a Genie Award nomination for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 8th Genie Awards.Greg Quill, "Decline rises to top Genie nominations". Toronto Star, February 5, 1987.
It is also his most successful film to date.Wyndham Wyse, "Philip Hoffman". Take One's Essential Guide to Canadian Film. University of Toronto Press, 2001. . p. 100.
See also Postmodernist film
References
External links
Official website