FILMING THE WHITTAKERS: Filmmaker Mark Laita reveals truth behind docu on America's most inbred family
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Mark Laita, the director of 'Inbred Family: The Whittakers' opened up about his experience of interacting with the Whittakers family. He claims it to be one of the "craziest thing I'd ever seen." Laita explained how the Inbred family would bark at people, communicate through grunts, and would often run away when people tried to speak to them.
The 63-year-old director found that they lived in a small region in West Virginia with a population of only 779. Laita first met the family in 2004 and then filmed them in 2020. He has also claimed that the community bears a striking resemblance to the 1972 film 'Deliverance.'
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Who is Mark Laita?
Mark Laita's website reads, "For over twenty years, advertising agencies worldwide have asked Mark Laita to bring his expertise, problem-solving abilities and signature style to their most important campaigns. His clean, colorful, graphic photography has earned him a reputation for award winning work for clients such as Adidas, BMW, Van Cleef and Arpels, and MINI."
Further,it added, "Based in Los Angeles since 1986, Mark also maintains a studio in Manhattan for his New York clients. His grace, wit, and straightforward manner help to create a relaxed and efficient work environment that can handle all aspects of print and live action imagery ranging from elaborate prop building to complicated retouching, as well as video editing. Mark's images have been featured in campaigns for clients as diverse as Estee Lauder, Budweiser, Visa, and IBM.His photography was used in the introduction of Apple's iMac, iBook, G3 and subsequent campaigns for Apple products for ten years. Mark's first book, Created Equal was published by Steidl in 2010. His second book, Sea was published by Abrams in late 2011. His most recent book, 'Serpentine' was released in 2013. His work has been exhibited in galleries in the US and Europe."
Mark Laita's experience with the Whittaker family
Laita said, "There’s these people walking around and their eyes are going in different directions and they are barking at us. The one guy you’d look at him in the eye or say anything and he’d scream and go running away and his pants would fall around his ankles and he’d go running off and go kick the garbage can. This would happen over and over," reports Daily Star. He also started a GoFundMe campaign for improving the life of these people. The campaign note stated, "100 per cent of this GoFundMe goes to help the Whittaker family with living expenses and home improvements." The campaign was able to fetch close to $52,980 USD raised of $75,000 goal. He claimed in an interaction with the Koncrete podcast, "I strongly discourage anyone attempting to look for the Whitakers as their armed neighbors and the Raleigh County deputies both make it clear that curious visitors are not welcome," reports Daily Mail. He also recalled one of the most bizarre moments with the family. "It was out of control," he said. "There's these people walking around and their eyes are going in different directions and they are barking at us. And [this] one guy, you'd look at him in the eye or say anything and he would just scream and go running away and his pants would fall around his ankles."