the one to watch: kedi

thanks pixabay. not from the documentary

Of course I'm going to find a way to watch "Kedi"!
I read that Istanbul's street cats number in the hundreds of thousands (and here I thought Rome's population was lavish).  How can you live and work in a city full of independent, proud creatures and not have them affect your day?  You can't.  Director Ceyda Torun knows this first hand and makes it clear in "Kedi," her documentary on the ferals of Istanbul.
Kedi's website is here.  (Complete with trailer.)
The RogerEbert.com review of Kedi is here.

cat man

They sit placidly, one on each of the man's arms and one - supremely relaxed - upon his tricorne hat.  The man is in full 18th c getup, featuring a powder blue frock coat.  The cats look good against this garment and seem to know it.  They don't do much.  They simply are.  The tourists love it and throw money in a box.  At the end of the day, the cats get packed up and calmly take the train home with their man.

The man is Bela Erdei, and in 2011 he and his three cats were the subject of a short documentary.  Not much happens.  Bela packs up his cats, takes the train, sets up, dresses up, stands around with his cats, and bickers with people who want to touch the cats uninvited.  Then he and the cats go home, after the return ticket has been given a good sniff by what seems, literally, to be the head cat.  It's an ordinary day in the life of a cat man.

I hope they are still bringing joy to tourists down in the South of France today. Watch "Bela: L'Homme Chat" here.

it's raining cats and dogs, and more visual treats

thanks british library flickr (pd)

Here's some creative treats I found on Vimeo:

 - I guess the French don't say "It's raining cats and dogs," but "It's raining ropes."  In this project for Eurostar, animator Claire Fauché mixes them up in a jaunty 30-second spot.  You'll remember how to say it in French now.

 - Absolute Radio invited listeners to share memories of dogs gone by.  Some of the resulting tales were too good to be true/or ignore, so Absolute Radio did the obvious thing and had a song made about it.  You can add your Fido to the Dead Dogs Memorial!

 - So many dog breeds, but to them, it's all one world.  A Dog's World.

 - A very short documentary piece very full of heart: the pets of the Amazon's Awa tribe.

denali

"I'm pretty sure Ben knows I'm dying," the voiceover says calmly.  As prepared as you may be, it still takes a beat before you realize it's the dog talking.  Then you'll keep listening and watching, rapt, and you will probably cry, and feel perfect about it.  The dog was Denali, whose dad Ben Moon is a photographer and filmmaker with a wide-open heart for nature and our place in it.  Denali and Ben went everywhere and did everything together.  When Denali's last days came, Moon made all the time remaining as gorgeous and adventuresome as possible, even if it meant carrying him there.  A sacrifice? No, a privilege.  And then he developed a Vimeo short . . .

. . . in honor of Denali.

canine aristocrats

a vintage photo time rerun!
probably not 1930's.
maybe not english.
great shoes though.

Scores of women in mary janes and cloches, all sounding like the Queen Mum, clutching King Charles spaniels or a brace of Russian Wolfhounds - a Monty Python skit, or a British Pathé reel of a 1930's dog show at Richmond?  The latter.  It's a couple of gently fun minutes, with a bonus litter of darling wire haired fox terrier puppies in the mix.  Enjoy!

jolly auto ad: a dog party

creative commons, public domain

Canines and cars:  Chevrolet had the winning advertising combo in this clip from 1936, in which dogs attend a swank teaparty just for them.  Do things go swimmingly?  They do not.  It is delightful, and gives you the idea that Chevys were just the ticket for the kids and dogs and the whole fam.  (Disclaimer:  I am a Ford fan.)

Found here on YouTube.

the sick kitten: 1901 film

Once upon a time, there was very little film and hardly any cats in that little bit.  Want to see one of the very earliest special appearances of cats on film?  Then you want to see The Sick Kitten, filmed by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1901 or 1903. (Sources vary.)  And here it is.  It's one of the first kitty closeups in film history.  Imagine: a time with no cat vids.
But wait!  Here's an 1895 snippet of a dog doing Loie Fuller's Serpentine Dance (which was a big deal at the time).

1938: "three little kittens"

Back in the late thirties, the educational film company known as ERPI (Educational Research Products, Inc.) created a short production on kitten life:  Three Little Kittens.  So follow along with these barn kittens and their mom for ten minutes as they are born in a nest of hay, open their eyes, stagger about, get kicked out by a sassy hen, and grow up and get jobs.  I believe the film meant to show children a bit of the maturity process for kittens, but our modern eyes will see different things.  No cat gets hurt, all is done sensibly.  And the last couple of kitten closeups were likely not intended to be as beautiful as they are. 

Don't see anything below?  Go here.

a town long on short dogs

Do you like dachshunds?  Do you really like them?  How about living around scads of them in a town famed for being the source of the low-slung breed?  Then get yourself over to Gergweis, Germany.  Gergweis is a little town a ways up from Salzburg which was for years famed as the dachshund world capital, though I notice its current Wikipedia page (in German) doesn't say a thing about that.  Luckily for us, British Pathé made a short film about the town and its dogs in 1957, using plenty of dry Brit humor and a strategically placed cat (to whom no harm comes, just so you know).  Go spend a minute in the land of dachshunds.

the cats of rome

"Rome is just one big catwalk," David Attenborough says as humans and cats strut by the Spanish Steps.  It's a worthy play on words, and found in the 2000 BBC Wildlife series documentary "Pussies Galore."  Though I wasn't thrilled with the title, I took a look and am glad I did.  Now I hope you'll visit the Roman Forum in turn to meet a colony of ferals as they make their way through a year in the Eternal City.  There's tough, grubby Caesar and his foe Brutus; good gray mom Mina; her daughter Livia; and a pack of kittens.  Do I wish they had it easier?  Am I worried about the kittens?  Do I wonder if there's a trap and neuter program in Rome?  Yes to all those things.  But there's a long tradition of kind "cat women" who step into the Forum (dressed up for the privilege, often) with food offerings, and though litters of ferals do die as you'd imagine, in this film the kittens thrive on fresh pigeon.  All this among the ancient stone of a great empire.

You can find "Pussies Galore" on YouTube:

Part I of III

Part II

Part III

PS:  Alley Cat Allies has an article on a successful trap-neuter-return program in Rome - you have to look for it but it's on this page.

firehouse skunk

(Clip courtesy footagefarm on youtube; footage is public domain.)

Universal Newsreel was a Universal Studios offshoot that produced newsreels from 1929 to 1967.  Sometime earlier rather than later, Vancouver, Washington -- a town I know very well indeed - made it to newsreel history when the local fire department picked up a temporary mascot.  Yes, a skunk went joyriding with the VFD.  I haven't been able to find out the year, but didn't want that to keep you from this curious sight.  Looks like it was a bit later than the fashion for pet "sachet kittens."  I think it's the 30's.  

rabbit yarn, 1929

thanks reusableart.com (PD)

Friend John over at It's All Good (cats) is a fount of terrific finds.  Here's a recent one:  an outtake set from a news story of March 6, 1929, in which two Seattle girls give their Angora bunnies a brushing and clipping.  Result: two spruced-up and relaxed rabbits, and one heap of yarn makings.  If only all fiber-producing animals could get the spa treatment as they gave up their fur!  Have some gentle fun watching these clips.

a shout out for "animals: a parallel history"

Friend of the Museum Stevan Zivkov Andricin is crafting his newest documentary around an idea whose time has come - Animal History.  I'll let his words tell the tale:

Animal lovers, this is a call to action! Your contribution will help to literally change history.
Help us raise funds for the premiere tour of our doc movie "Animals: A Parallel History", the first feature documentary about animals' participation in humankind history. Animals don't have the power of speech and their lives and fates aren't taught in schools. In this film, in more than 100 minutes, we make a modest attempt to show people the history humans and animals share. We also illustrate how, over the last 200 years and now in the 21 century, animals have become little more than machines for food and experiments. 
So, we recognize the existence of parallel history: magnificent and glorious Animal History, and this movie is the first educational tool ever.

Here's the page where RocketHub makes it superbly easy to donate and get your name on the big screen.  (You don't even have to be namechecked in the movie credits if you don't wanna - look at the bottom choice, "no gift necessary."  Which is swell for us shy animal champions.)  Every tiny bit helps this fine idea.

Want to see some clips of the documentary in development?
Here you are.
And here you are again.
There's even a theme song already, but I'm going to save that for a day or two from now.