Why did Frances McDormand howl at the Oscars? For a South Jersey sound mixer.
McDormand’s howl after “Nomadland” nabbed Best Picture was to honor the South Jersey sound mixer who worked on the film and died in March.
Actress Frances McDormand howled like a wolf at Sunday’s Academy Awards after Nomadland nabbed Best Picture to honor the South Jersey sound mixer who worked on the film and died by suicide in March.
Michael Wolf Snyder, 35, was a graduate of Moorestown High School in Burlington County and lived in New York, NJ.com reported.
He recorded the sounds of crickets, cars, and campfire while working on the film about older Americans who travel the country in vans and campers in search of seasonal employment and community.
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In her acceptance speech, McDormand encouraged viewers to enjoy the film on “the largest screen possible, and one day, take everyone you know into a theater shoulder-to-shoulder in that dark space, and watch every film represented tonight,” an ode to a ritual that hasn’t been possible recently because of the pandemic.
“We give this one to our Wolf,” McDormand said before howling, quite realistically, like a wolf to end Hollywood’s biggest night.
Snyder’s father David, a Moorestown psychiatrist, announced his son’s death in a Facebook post in March. He said Michael suffered from depression for many years and that spending time alone in his Queens apartment since the start of the pandemic likely contributed to his death.
“In spite of this, we all believed he was doing well, and for most of this past year I think he was. He seemed especially joyful and invigorated in these last few months since he was able to return to work on several different film projects,” David Snyder wrote. “He was certainly thrilled about all of the accolades for Nomadland and told us many happy stories about his work on the film and the amazing people he got to spend time with. Unfortunately, we believe he was gone before getting to see the Golden Globe awards.”
Chloé Zhao, who made history Sunday when she became the first woman of color to win an Academy Award for Best Director, dedicated the Critics Choice Award she won in March to Snyder, her colleague and friend.
Speaking about a busy day shooting The Rider, another film the pair worked on together, Zhao remembered Snyder this way:
“After a really hectic day, Wolf came to me and said, ‘Hey, Chloé, how about I just record room tone a little bit longer than I need so I can buy you some time to think, to hear yourself better?’ And that’s what we did. And we did the same thing on Nomadland. And these were the best moments of our day. The whole crew together, watching Wolf, and he would say, ‘All right, everyone, get ready. Let’s go to your Zen place.’ And we did. So thank you, Wolf. We honor you and we’ll see you down the road, my friend.”
McDormand is Nomadland’s star, but the film comes to life thanks to the many real seasonal workers it features. The filmmakers followed them to encampments, truck stops, Amazon warehouses, Walmart parking lots, and crop harvests — living the life in order to record it with honesty.
Zhao told The Inquirer in February that she wants the people in her movies to be respected. “I feel like I’m in the business of recording time. And I’m always curious about how people would like to be remembered. It’s not about what I think. It’s not about my own point of view.”
McDormand plays Fern, a composite of the kind of people we meet in the Jessica Bruder book the film is adapted from. Fern hits the road after her husband dies, and after the drywall factory in her Iowa town abruptly shuts down, throwing hundreds out of work.
That was a real tragedy in a real town, and you can imagine how a filmmaker might want to focus the story on dashed American dreams and economic exploitation. But Zhao is a step ahead of expectations.
The houseless people we meet are kind, funny, resilient, complex — we see these attributes even in the story of a woman who forgoes chemotherapy to spend her remaining weeks in the most beautiful place she can find.
“Obviously, politically, I think [the nomad life] should be a choice for people of that age in one of the richest countries in the world,” Zhao said. “You shouldn’t be forced into that life.”
By telling their stories in Zhao’s movie, the nomads get to choose how the world looks at them. “I know they don’t want to be remembered as an issue, as victims. They want to be remembered with dignity.”
Snyder wants his son Michael, Wolf as he was known on set, to be remembered with dignity, too.
“I hope that the shocking nature of Michael’s death will alert others to speak up, risk being vulnerable, and seek the help that they need,” David Snyder wrote in his March Facebook post. “It is such a tragic waste that a temporary heightening of despair can end a life with so much promise.”
Soon after Michael Snyder’s death, McDormand remembered him in a statement, Variety reported.
“Wolf recorded our heart beats,” she said. “Our every breath. For me, he is Nomadland.