Wild Tigers I Have Known is a 2006 feature film written, edited, produced and directed by Cam Archer. After being work-shopped at the 2005 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, the film had its world premiere at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and went on to be screened at New Directors/New Films, London International Film Festival, Locarno International Film Festival and AFI Film Festival. In 2007, the film was released theatrically by IFC Films. However, this is a re-edited shorter edition in (chronological) scenes, sound and duration, which leads to another interpretation of the director's intent with his movie. The original length was 1:38 min., and the ICF-film only 1.21 min. Some scenes have been deleted, e.g. an episode in which the main character compares his penis' size with that of a friend is not included. The episode at the party in which Logan is overtly being accused by some older boys for being a faggot boy, is omitted too (Only the end by which he is punched in the nose is available), as well the scene that Logan goes, dressed up as Leah, to the house of his boyfriend Rodeo and talks to the girlfriend of him. In the original score the song 'Wild tigers I have known' by Emily Jane White was not included. To make it more confusing, shoots that are in the re-edited movie, are not be found in the original extended release, so considering this the film was probably about 1:50 minutes. Also there is a European DVD-release, issued by Soda, in which the IFC-film is even shorter, namely 1:13 minutes.
The film follows 13 year-old Logan (Malcolm Stumpf), as he comes to terms with his sexual identity, the hell of middle school, wild mountain lions and life with his single mother (Fairuza Balk).
Cinematographer and frequent Archer collaborator, Aaron Platt, received a 2007 Independent Spirit Award nomination for his work on the film. Gus Van Sant and producer Scott Rudin were executive producers on the project, in addition to producers Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy.
The film was shot in and around Archer's hometown of Santa Cruz, California.
Famous quotes containing the words wild and/or tigers:
“Some spring the white man came, built him a house, and made a clearing here, letting in the sun, dried up a farm, piled up the old gray stones in fences, cut down the pines around his dwelling, planted orchard seeds brought from the old country, and persuaded the civil apple-tree to blossom next to the wild pine and the juniper, shedding its perfume in the wilderness. Their old stocks still remain.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)