Cats join dogs as film fest subject
NEW YORK — The creator of a film festival celebrating dogs has taken a surprising step: cats.
But Tracie Hotchner, a pet wellness advocate via books, podcasts and radio shows, isn’t going full-on “Ghostbusters” — “dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria!” She’s screening a medley of shorts about cats on Saturday in New York, then will take her feline fest on the road, followed by her third annual NY Dog Film Festival on Sunday.
To be clear, this isn’t an Internet cutesy fest. While some selections are humorous, these are films made by actual filmmakers, as opposed to people looking to go viral with their pets as video props.
“I’m not a fan of animal videos,” Hotchner explained. “I find that animal videos online tend to have a shaming quality. It’s just not my cup of tea. I’m celebrating the relationship with humans, the bond.”
For both cats and dogs, some of the films are scripted, some animated, and some are documentaries, like the one by Mary Zournazi, “Dogs of Democracy.” Her 58-minute film highlights the life of a street mutt in Athens named Loukanikos, who became a four-legged symbol of the anti-austerity protests in Greece after showing up on the front lines and facing down authorities alongside the humans.
Zournazi, who teaches sociology in Australia, knew nothing about the dogs until she first arrived in Athens in 2014.
“It was a really tense time because of the austerity measures,” she said from Australia. “The crisis was in full swing. I fell in love with the dogs immediately. They led me to think about that relationship with the people who take care of them.”
Zournazi’s project is as long as these films get. Some are as short as a minute. All are intended to inspire, Hotchner said from Bennington, Vt., where she lives.
“I’m a little allergic to cute,” Hotchner said. “My universe is all about education.”
Her dog fest has been selling out since 2015, she said.
So why add cats? And why on separate days?
“It’s sort of a merger, but it’s a schizophrenic merger,” Hotchner joked. “Cats are not little dogs. And cat people aren’t necessarily dog people.”
She said she started with dogs “because it honestly didn’t cross my mind that there could be a decent movie about a cat.” Hotchner was pleasantly surprised when she went in search of film fodder.
In the eight-minute “Scaredy, the Cat,” for example, New York City filmmaker Markie Hancock celebrates the life of a feral cat taken on to be a ratter at some public clay tennis courts in Riverside Park. The problem was she turned out to be scared of rats, yet she has forged a close bond to a small handful of people.
“Most of the people who care for Scaredy don’t even play tennis,” Hancock said. “But they all go down there to feed and take care of her. I love that free exchange with no commerce involved, no technology involved. It’s people in a public space who are connecting with each other. I think animals really just bring us together.”