Crystal Moselle’s documentary THE WOLFPACK, is a mysterious and sensitive probing of the Angulo
family – six brothers, with Sanskrit names - Bhagavan, Govinda, Narayana,
Mukunda, Krsna and Jagadisa, now ages 16 to 23, a “special needs” sister, and
their parents, Oscar and Susanne, who live in NYC Public Housing on Manhattan’s
Lower East Side. Over a period of five years, the director Moselle shot
approximately 500 hours of footage recording lives that were anything but
conventional; encountering them on one of their rare neighborhood outings, a
crew of six brothers dressed in black with sunglasses and dark flowing hair.
She became their first friend and ultimately a catalyst for change. What is so
intriguing is the fact that the entire family rarely left their small apartment
(one year they never went out at all), the father being the only one with a key
keeping everyone under secure lock, including his wife who supported them by
home schooling the children. Oscar Angulo who is seen in home movies, often
drinking, and engaging with his offspring in “questionable” ways that made me
uneasy – spouting philosophical sound bites reminiscent of the 1960s,
fashioning himself as a highly “evolved” person who had a mission to protect
his brood, absolutely convinced that there was a “safe” world inside and a
“dangerous” one beyond the warren that was their refuge from the evils lurking
within the big city.
Susanne, like a mother cat lolling on a bed with her kittens
nestling close by, splayed about in every direction, comforted by an adult’s
loving presence – was unable to defy her husband’s bizarre authoritative
control over the household, yet she was able through her teaching to fuel their
original and fanciful spirits. We are privy to what life was like growing up
within the confines of a small space, never leaving the enclave to venture
outdoors; the cosmos is isolated and narrow, but also richly imagined.
The father begins to bring
movies into their home – a
collection of over 5,000 DVD’s and Videotape Cassettes that the Angulo boys’
catalogue - and an alternate universe is studied, imitated and explored. The
manipulative Goliath looming over their lives inadvertently becomes the source
of their survival and ultimate liberation. Acting, performing, directing,
making delightful masks and props out of cereal boxes, yoga mats, and other
detritus including clothes brought home by Oscar, rummaged from throwaways in
NYC garbage bins; typing and performing scenes word-for-word from films such as
Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, etc.
mutates the boredom of their existence into an electrically agitated collision
of the “reel” world with “reality” as seen through the eyes of various
directors.
Between wild maneuvers, the
boys acrobatically leaping in the air with the grace of youth, their long
pony-tails flapping skyward, feigning death by flying bullets shot out of
aluminum wrapped guns, and acting out the excruciatingly extreme violence of
horror films, Crystal Moselle asks questions – and the responses are so
genuine, awkward and shy that I barely could hold back tears for the tragic
circumstances that non-socialization accorded them. Shaky amateur movies
chronicle the Angulo children’s development, communicating their silent
childlike observations, as we witness the transformations that occur once they mature and began to challenge the strictures that they were living under -
eventually having the courage to defy their father and venture outside.
The window looking down at
the street from on high is a persistent motif and seductively photographed -
colors illuminating the changing seasons vivifying the neighborhood’s daily
routines, particularly holiday parades which punctuate special events. In one
particularly moving segment on Halloween, the Angulo boys replicate the
costumed children parading up and down the street; so they too march around the
apartment dressed in marvelously handcrafted outfits which communicate both
horror and beauty.
There are many poignant
moments in the evolution from isolation to autonomy. Investigating the natural
surroundings is a fresh and enchanted adventure as seen through the eyes of the
new-born “wolfpack” traveling together like a single organism – a tribe made up
of six individual members on their reconnaissance discoveries. Going down the
elevator of your building for the first time conscious of being both anxious
and euphoric; experiencing the icy winds and wet breezes on your face and back;
stepping into the air and inhaling the diverse scents of the city; attending
your first movie in the balcony of a theater; and taking a trip to Coney Island
tentatively dipping one’s foot and then one’s body into the buoyant salty water
are all deeply momentous occasions.
Whoever believes that the
fantasy milieu of films lack the power to enrich lives is proven wrong by THE
WOLFPACK. Both hopeful and
challenging, this movie leaves many questions open for exploration, and I for
one am rooting for the Angulo clan to realize their dreams. The future though
fraught is one they now have the opportunity to wrestle with.
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