By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Monteith McCallum
Country: united_states
Year: 2002
Running time: 92
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0267563
Laura says: “I found HYBRID moving and *loved* some of the stunning black and white imagery. The score combined with the images made it very melancholic. And I never realized what cornsilk was really for!”
Michael says: “Thanks to Laura’s tip, I taped the experimental documentary, HYBRID when it played on PBS last week. Scot and I watched it the other night, and I found it to be beautifully filmed, and interesting to watch, but the subject matter was not as compelling as other documentaries I’ve seen.
“HYBRID deals with a man’s lifelong obsession with corn. In the 1940’s he developed corn seeds that yielded better corn plants. The film looked at his relationship with his crop, and how he was more comfortable with corn than with his own family.
“The amazing stop-action photography that had ears of corn copulating, dancing and doing all sorts of beautiful things was reminiscent of LITTLE OTIK. The stark, black and white photography gave the corn-belt landscape a mysterious, dark look. Filmmaker Monteith McCollum certainly made this film visually interesting.
“Which was a good thing because I didn’t find the subject matter as compelling as I was hoping. I too had more of a connection to the corn than the man in HYBRID, and I would have liked to have seen more on this delightful crop. (Although I did learn quite a bit about how the hermaphroditic corn plant propagate themselves, and even got a lesson about corn incest!) While Milford Beeghly was also an interesting subject, I felt there were gaps in his life that would have made him more of a whole person than what we were shown. I believe the 60-minutes version of the film shows on PBS was trimmed from an original 92 minutes. Whether this did the film a disservice, or heightened its appeal I may never know.” 2 1/2 cats