The Wolfpack
January 24, 2015 6:19 AM Subscribe
‘The Wolfpack’ Tells of One New York Apartment With Seven Children Locked Inside (NYT). Crystal Moselle's documentary "The Wolfpack," premieres this Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival. A video interview with Crystal Moselle.
"It’s quite a tale: Seven children, all with waist-length hair, are raised on welfare in a messy four-bedroom apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. And they are almost never allowed to leave the house. For years."
"Lending extra resonance to 'The Wolfpack,' particularly at Sundance, is one detail in particular. When they were not being home schooled by their mother, the boys - Bhagavan, Govinda, Narayana, Mukunda, Krisna and Jagadesh — and their sister, Visnu, were allowed to watch movies nonstop, on DVDs bought at a discount of borrowed from the library."
"Ms. Moselle said she first met the brothers in 2010 as they walked 'in a pack' down First Avenue. All of them were wearing black Ray-Ban sunglasses inspired by 'Reservoir Dogs,' and their long hair was blowing in the wind. 'I just started running after them to find out more and was instantly obsessed,' she said."
The poster, in "Reservoir Dog" style, can be found here. (film pulse)
'Wolfpack' follows 7 kids locked in an apartment, and raised on films (LA Times)
What if you grew up locked inside a New York City apartment, with only the movies to teach you of the world at large? (indie wire)
"It’s quite a tale: Seven children, all with waist-length hair, are raised on welfare in a messy four-bedroom apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. And they are almost never allowed to leave the house. For years."
"Lending extra resonance to 'The Wolfpack,' particularly at Sundance, is one detail in particular. When they were not being home schooled by their mother, the boys - Bhagavan, Govinda, Narayana, Mukunda, Krisna and Jagadesh — and their sister, Visnu, were allowed to watch movies nonstop, on DVDs bought at a discount of borrowed from the library."
"Ms. Moselle said she first met the brothers in 2010 as they walked 'in a pack' down First Avenue. All of them were wearing black Ray-Ban sunglasses inspired by 'Reservoir Dogs,' and their long hair was blowing in the wind. 'I just started running after them to find out more and was instantly obsessed,' she said."
The poster, in "Reservoir Dog" style, can be found here. (film pulse)
'Wolfpack' follows 7 kids locked in an apartment, and raised on films (LA Times)
What if you grew up locked inside a New York City apartment, with only the movies to teach you of the world at large? (indie wire)
OH MY GOD!i met two of these brothers last year! they were at a friends fashion show and their style was so intense and weird that everyone was talking about them maybe more than the clothes. one of them had just cut his hair, which was still long but was now styled i guess. i asked the friend who's show it was who they were and she said she didn't know, but that they just started going out, which didn't seem weird at the time but after reading this makes me think they had just started leaving the house. anyway, this story is crazy but those kids were really nice and smart and not at all as weird as one would expect. in all honesty they must have something going on to have a whole room of New Yorkers instantly drawn to them.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 7:12 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 7:12 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
AAC, I have a lot of the same misgivings, and I'm caught between this sort of abuse-survivor(s)-as-documentary-fodder thing that I've seen many, many times over the years, and the anecdotal reassurances (such as from C-C above) that they seem to be OK, more or less. My own experiences in NYC and the muted horror that these kids didn't get to explore that incredible city are no doubt coloring my reactions heavily.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:28 AM on January 24, 2015
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:28 AM on January 24, 2015
Those kids look amazing. I can see why she followed them down the street. I hope they come out of this alright.
posted by Bee'sWing at 7:34 AM on January 24, 2015
posted by Bee'sWing at 7:34 AM on January 24, 2015
I know someone who was in the newspapers for her abusive upbringing as a child. The articles didn't use her or her family members' real names though.
It can help with access to services, but my friend was very anti-publicity and didn't like people reading the stories about her before meeting her. I don't know if being more-involved in the creation of the narrative, like these kids were, would have made a difference. She also lived in a much smaller town than NYC, where it was harder to avoid meeting people who knew about her background.
posted by subdee at 8:38 AM on January 24, 2015
It can help with access to services, but my friend was very anti-publicity and didn't like people reading the stories about her before meeting her. I don't know if being more-involved in the creation of the narrative, like these kids were, would have made a difference. She also lived in a much smaller town than NYC, where it was harder to avoid meeting people who knew about her background.
posted by subdee at 8:38 AM on January 24, 2015
The article keeps referring to "the boys" going out, or heading to Sundance. Not the sister too? It is unclear.
posted by chapps at 9:10 AM on January 24, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by chapps at 9:10 AM on January 24, 2015 [7 favorites]
a four bedroom, Low East Side of Manhattan apt...on welfare????
posted by shockingbluamp at 9:13 AM on January 24, 2015
posted by shockingbluamp at 9:13 AM on January 24, 2015
Just reading the FPP gave me shivers remembering Nobody Knows.
Thankfully this appears to have a much less horrifying ending.
posted by M Edward at 9:15 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Thankfully this appears to have a much less horrifying ending.
posted by M Edward at 9:15 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Chapps, that caught me, as well. Seven siblings, locked in an apartment...but apparently the only ones that are worth talking about in any of the articles are the six boys? The seventh sibling is just erased in this coverage--hopefully not in the film, as well. Her exclusion makes an already unsettling premise even stranger.
posted by MeghanC at 9:39 AM on January 24, 2015 [12 favorites]
posted by MeghanC at 9:39 AM on January 24, 2015 [12 favorites]
Shockingbluamp: NYC subsidized housing, plentiful on the Lower East Side, has tons of 3 and 4 bedroom apartments, and the rent is set at one-third of whatever your income (welfare, etc.) might be. Not at all uncommon on the LES to now have 1600 square foot apartments on opposite sides of the same street, the one renting for $500 a month and one renting for $15,000 a month.
posted by MattD at 9:50 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by MattD at 9:50 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Just reading the FPP gave me shivers remembering Nobody Knows.
"Nobody Knows" should probably never be watched by anyone. My husband is still mad at me for suggesting we try it.
posted by daisystomper at 11:57 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
"Nobody Knows" should probably never be watched by anyone. My husband is still mad at me for suggesting we try it.
posted by daisystomper at 11:57 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Just reading the FPP gave me shivers remembering Nobody Knows.
I went in Dogtooth direction myself.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:46 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
I went in Dogtooth direction myself.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:46 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Like Chapps and MeghanC, I am disturbed by how the younger sister just disappears out of the story. Female children are if anything more vulnerable to this kind of parental abuse than male children (not least because society will often approve of it far more), and they don't consider it worth telling us anything about her fate.
posted by tavella at 2:16 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by tavella at 2:16 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
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posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:57 AM on January 24, 2015 [7 favorites]