Whisnant grew up poor, the kind of kid, he laments on camera, who would never have been invited over to the Wood house. Not the start of a horrific true crime tale, but something altogether stranger begins to unfold as news of Whisnants find reaches a man called John Wood and his family. The documentary unfolds in wild ways which we wouldnt want to spoil, though it almost plays like a softer, sadder but no less bizarre sister piece to Tiger King, with two lives linked for better or worse. Mike Shannon, legendary voice of the Cardinals, dies at 83 Shannon Whisnant: I'm pretty smart. Shannon is a healthcare innovation enthusiast and passionate advocate for tech-enabled transformation. Somebody came up to me at Sun Valley and was like: Wait, this is a fictional feature, right? By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us. He spends a lot of time with his mom and his sister again. hide caption. [3] Boston University established the William V. Shannon Memorial Fellowships in his memory, to benefit Irish citizens pursuing graduate study at the university.[5]. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. One thing thats interesting about this documentary is that both main characters were so ready to talk on camera. In 2007, a North Carolina man named Shannon Whisnant bought the contents of an abandoned storage unit at auction. When the documentary footage began, he was just 30 days sober. Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. His discovery turned him into a local celebrity; Whisnant had t-shirts . Its a tale of class privilege gone wrong, the relentless hunger for fame, stoic mourning and submerged family neuroses, and the crazy contortions caused by money and ownership. Inside the smoker, a mummified human foot. They signed on, no restrictions. Jessica is related to Lauren Whisnant and . Sent home with a big bottle of Oxycontin, he relapsed. If a fictional movie were to be made of Shannon Whisnants life, I imagine that hed be played by O Brother, Where Art Thou?era John Goodman. Eight years ago, a man named Shannon Whisnant found an amputated human foot in a barbecue smoker he'd purchased from a storage locker in Maiden, North Carolina. Despite heavy Southern accents (and, on Whisnants part, the occasional malapropism) that make the two protagonists and their friends and family sound a bit like the bumpkins you might assume them to be, Wood and Whisnant come across as surprisingly thoughtful and introspective interview subjects. Hes married to his wife, Leslie, now. View the profiles of professionals named "Shannon Whisnant" on LinkedIn. Rosie Fletcher is the UK Editor of Den Of Geek. I kind of love the idea of the intersection between the incredibly wacky and stupid with this much deeper meaning. 5-Down, Eight Letters: Show that gave us New New York. He assumed they would give him the bone; however, he was surprised to receive the entire thingwith skin and muscle still intact. Carberry: John Wood was kind of the rich kid of this small town. Article ImagePrior to the events of Finders Keepers, John Wood lived a fairly ordinary, albeit troubled, life in North Carolina. Finders Keepers: Directed by Bryan Carberry, Clay Tweel. Tendons, toenails and all. Whisnant is a blue collar man who felt like a nobody because he was never invited to Woods house as a kid (whether this is meant metaphorically or literally is unclear). Oscars Best Picture Winners Best Picture Winners Emmys Women's History Month STARmeter Awards San Diego Comic-Con New York Comic-Con Sundance Film Festival Toronto Int'l Film Festival Awards Central Festival Central All Events John is doing really well. How then do we reconcile that? As Whisnant and Wood struggle over ownership of the limb, other issues come into play. Shannon Whisnant always craved the limelight. Everybody wants to make a leg pun, Mr. Tweel explained. The film is about two men: John Wood, a drug addict who lost his leg in an airplane crash, and Shannon Whisnant, who found the mummified remains of that appendage in an old barbecue grill . It could have been 10 stars instead of 8.8. As you might imagine, what followed was a bizarre battle, a media frenzy and, now, a new documentary called Finders Keepers. In their hands, this is much more than a stranger-than-fiction yarn about a severed leg. I imagine that their wisdom if thats even the right word for it comes from hindsight. All this is just the set up for a poignant story of big personalities, legal vs moral ownership rights, the reality TV circus, and the class divide. They didnt deride it as being about two rednecks fighting over a leg. Read on for more thoughts from Carberry and Tweel about John Wood, Shannon Whisnant, and the path to Finders Keepers. And that's kind of, for us, where things started to fill out, and we really started to feel like we had a feature film on our hands. I guess Im a nobody. The foot might be a branding opportunity for him, but its also, we realize, a cosmic righting of the scales. He wanted to preserve the leg as a memorial to his dad. As hysterical as it is insightful, this documentary finds the humanity behind a TV news freak show, read the review in Variety. John was in such a bad spot and its a piece of his own body. Finders Keepers is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). He suffered a freak accident when the engine went out while he and his father weretaking a joyridein their small plane. When he took both of them home and opened the grill, he discovered something he hadn't been expecting: a mummified human leg. He had saved it because he wanted eventually to be buried with it, but he fell on hard times, struggled with addiction, lost his home, and, eventually, his storage unit. Shannon Whisnant. Eventually, his things were auctioned off to the highest bidder. When we finally started showing it to people and they were like, What! CT: Yeah. Published: Apr. 3. Inside the unit was a smoker. This is the stranger-than-fiction tale like Carson McCullers come to life chronicled in the documentary Finders Keepers, opening on Friday, Sept. 25. John Wood, center. His failure in life coupled with his grief and guilt over his fathers death has become inextricably linked to the severed leg. Junk dealer Shannon Whisnant, is the, er, lucky guy who found Woods appendage, in 2007, rolled up in a length of window screen like a taquito, after winning the contents of Woods storage locker at auction when Wood fell into arrears on his rental payments. Anyone can read what you share. TV Shows. Doctors had to amputate Woods leg and his father did not survive. Both have tragic backstories (one is addicted to drugs the other addicted to fame) and their parallel paths lead to redemption, disillusionment and a plan to run for President in the 2016 US election. Hes very smart. Its important to Wood that he gives back to his community, and that his reputation extends beyond this strange scenario. You're marketing my leg! - NBC News Theres lots of people who think its a mockumentary, Mr. Tweel said. I'm sure y'all figured that out by now. Shannon Whisnant, 42; service later - carolinacoastonline.com The leg seemed heaven-sent, he said. I really appreciate it! Finders Keepers begins in Maidan, North Carolina where local wheeler-dealer Shannon Whisnant buys a storage unit at auction containing a smoker. A man who had bought a barbecue smoker at a storage unit auction popped it open at home, only to discover, resting on the grill, the remains of a gnarled human leg. 82 minutes. Cunningham sniffed the makings of a good story, so he flew to Wood and Whisnants town of Maiden, North Carolina, to start poking around. Skip to main content The two men grew up in the same town, on opposite sides of the class divide. Adam Hobbs. And then I was shocked, months later, Im just playing it over and over again, and it meant nothing to me. The discovery naturally raised a lot of questions: Whose foot was it? Meanwhile, Wood speaks with a bewildered directness, as if he cant believe all the ways in which hes screwed up his life. After taking it home, he opened the grill to find a macabre surprise in the form of a crudely mummified human foot. As for the leg itself,Wood moved it from the bottom of a golf bag and into his closet before finally encasing it in epoxy as a memorial to his father, fulfilling Wood's initial intentions ofkeeping the leg. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time There was definitely an awareness of what the media is capable of. Still, the odd scenario which Finders Keepers showcase, may not find a larger audience that this documentary deserves. But hes developed this persona of always joking around and being a fun guy and not taking anything seriously. And why in the world would anybody have their own amputated limb preserved for posterity? Did the leg rightfully belong to its original owner, or to the man who had inadvertently paid good money for it? Its a never-ending story, said Bryan Carberry, a director of the film, but you have to stop shooting at some point.. Sidebar: Is there another term, in the film world, except footage? Mr. Wood asked during a recent interview alongside his directors in New York. Its also a class story: Wood, the son of a furniture company exec, grew up on an estate in Maiden, with a roller rink in the basement and a go-cart track. Would you believe me if I told you the story gets even crazier as it goes along? Shannon was born and raised in St . If part of the story is this guys search for fame, and desire for fame, thats the story, said Mr. Berlinger, who tread similar tonal and thematic ground with the 1992 film Brothers Keeper. When you go in the editing room, you have to make a great effort to be fair to your subject and fair to your material, whatever that is, he added. Shirley Whisnantwas born on 07/22/1941 and is 81 years old. This password will be used to sign into all, AI Singers Are Unnervingly Good and Already Ubiquitous, The Potential 2023 WGA Strike for Dummies. Tweel: I think our job was then to continually to dig deeper and get to the heart of what makes these people tick and they were unbelievably trusting of us and more honest than a lot of people are on camera. Even Johns family didnt know if he was going to pull through this time. Industry professionals are tweeting their support of guild members. Trouble is, the original owner of the limb, John Wood, wanted it back. Shannon Whisnant Profiles | Facebook .CT: You know, theyve had some ups and downs. So much so that the 2015 documentary, directed by Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel, actually feels like a companion piece. Shannon even more so, trying to make his dad laugh so he would stop getting whipped. OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY Secretary of the Treasury.Steven T. Mnuchin, Room 3330, 622-1100. Welcome to your next obsession, Finders Keepers, a bizarre story of a legal battle over a severed human leg Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness has taken the locked down world by storm, inspiring a whirlwind of memes, at least one lawsuit, and even prompting Netflix to release a hastily put together Aftershow catching up with some of the main players after the series became a humungous hit. The Wood and Whisnant camps were by then leery of media attention, but the filmmakers pitch was, Were going to give each of you a voice behind this salacious headline, said Clay Tweel, the other director. You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. Whisnant bought Wood's barbecue smoker, took it home, opened it up, and discovered inside the mummified limb. While most people would have sought to return the limb to its proper owner, the fame-seeking hustler went the P.T. Mr. Wood described Mr. Whisnant as my Antichrist. Mr. Whisnant sometimes appeared jealous and disdainful of the foe he called the one-legged man. And yet, eight years in, their fortunes are inextricably linked. Sundance audiences loved it. John did the only natural thing. The foot belonged to John Wood, a troubled addict from a wealthy background who lost it in the plane crash that killed his father. He lost it because, in the throes of addiction, he couldnt keep up on his storage unit payments. It kind of breaks the stereotypes that are thrown around in pop culture for Southern rednecks. It wasnt a lot of money, but it was enough to say, Hey, nice one, I see what youre doing here, Mr. Wood said, looking skyward. I think tomorrow were having a screening at Lincoln Center, and I think both of them might be Skyping in for the Q&A. 1 was putting it in the freezer. Parts of the news media, Mr. Wood said, used him like a paper plate: They use you one time and throw you away.. Years ago, in the small town of Maiden, N.C., a man named Shannon Whisnant bought a storage locker, and in it he found a grill. Though Woodhas hadhis ups and downs, the events have helpedhim regain perspective. They looked pained. . Wood came from money he was the son of a furniture mogul and according to Whisnant had a roller rink in his basement (just one of many bizarre details which are never mentioned again). Their fortunes still seem to cross, somehow. They all will be answered, along with some you haven't even considered. He really likes it. Filmmakers Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel tell NPR's Arun Rath they wanted to dig deep and get the story behind the spectacle. When Wood failed to make payments on the rented space, Whisnant swooped in at auction and got it. And so does Wood. Presumably John was still struggling with drug addiction when you guys started filming?BC: Ed caught up with John in early 2008, so he was in the halfway house from his rehab. They have also lived in Gastonia, NC. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - April 27, 2023 marked 12 years since the devastating tornado outbreak in Alabama. Mr. Wood now lives in the mountains of North Carolina; Mr. Whisnant moved to the coast. Did it have the same effect on either of you?BC: I can remember when I first saw some of Eds early footage, when Katy [the amateur forensic veterinarian who eventually preserves the leg] is holding it in her hands without any gloves, I got nauseous that day.
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