\n<\/p>\n
The cinematic events debuting at the Village East by Angelika this weekend won\u2019t feature any of the acclaimed actors from the recently concluded New York Film Festival. Some of the major figures in these movies have been known to jump on their directors, fall asleep on the job, drool on camera and chew the scenery (in every sense).<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s no surprise: They\u2019re among the four-legged performers in the sixth annual NY Cat Film Festival<\/a> and the eighth annual NY Dog Film Festival<\/a>. Each offers short documentary and fictional works illustrating how people affect the lives of animals, and how animals affect the lives of people \u2014 usually in positive ways.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to keep them to films that are lighter and that simply uplift you,\u201d Tracie Hotchner<\/a>, the founder of both festivals, said in a video interview. And even though some of the featured dogs and cats are in difficult circumstances, the movies, she added, are \u201cmore of a celebration of the groups that rescue them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n These grass-roots film programs also benefit their subjects: Of the $18 all-inclusive ticket price for each festival, 10 percent goes to a pet-adoption nonprofit. (The Manhattan screenings<\/a> will help support Muddy Paws Rescue<\/a> and Meow Parlour Cats<\/a>.) And fans who can\u2019t see the programs this weekend may be able to catch them in the coming months when they tour to independent cinemas nationwide and in Canada.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThese are not, you know, Hollywood-style movies,\u201d said Hotchner, an author, radio host and podcaster based in Vermont. They\u2019re \u201clike the poetry of films.\u201d<\/p>\n Some are clearly light verse. The 102-minute feline festival<\/a>, at noon on Saturday, includes \u201cThe Cat Duet,\u201d by Lorelei De Armas and Julian Wood, 12-year-olds from Detroit who filmed themselves singing \u201cDuetto buffo di due gatti<\/a>,\u201d a comic song often attributed to Rossini. (The only lyric is \u201cMeow.\u201d) The 110-minute dog festival<\/a>, at noon on Sunday, features Nepal Arslan<\/a>\u2019s \u201c47 Seconds,\u201d his haiku-like response to discovering decades-old footage of a couple with a dog eerily resembling his own.<\/p>\n \u201cSilent Paws,\u201d by the global initiative Mutual Rescue<\/a>, even incorporates a real poem: a work of the same title by Gabriel Spera<\/a>, which scrolls by during an elegy to lost feline companions.<\/p>\n Neither festival, however, has a shortage of serious documentaries. Michelle Williams\u2019s \u201cBear the Courthouse Canine\u201d explores the pivotal role that a gentle Labrador retriever plays for the Contra Costa County, Calif., district attorney. Trained to lie under the witness stand during trials, Bear<\/a> comforts traumatized victims who are testifying, especially children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The dogs in \u201cBARC if You Need Help\u201d work on the other side of the criminal justice system. Produced by the Latham Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education<\/a>, this film examines Building Adolescent Responsibility and Compassion<\/a>, a program in Michigan that recruits juvenile offenders to train animals \u2014 frequently pit bulls that have troubled histories, too.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a mirror for them,\u201d Tula Asselanis, the documentary\u2019s director, said of the teenage participants. And the film suggests that \u201credemption is a powerful possibility, just through using the human-animal bond.\u201d<\/p>\n But what struck Hotchner most about the festivals\u2019 submissions this year was how much they tried to capture the inner lives of animals.<\/p>\n With cats, \u201cit\u2019s like, you know, \u2018E.T.,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cSo this alien comes into your life, and they\u2019re so beautiful and so lovely. But what makes them tick?\u201d<\/p>\n The filmmakers\u2019 speculations are often comic, as in \u201cInsomnia,\u201d by Kim Best<\/a>, who provides subtitles detailing a cat\u2019s ruminations on this most unlikely of feline problems: \u201cEmbarrassingly, I considered sleeping with a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Other films that venture inside the minds of their subjects include Ned Thanhouser<\/a>\u2019s docudrama \u201cRanger: Canine Alpinist,\u201d which relies on voice-over to relate the perspective of a dog who assisted human climbers on Mount Hood in Oregon almost a century ago. In the fictional \u201cSet Adrift,\u201d the British director Jennifer Sheridan<\/a> uses only her furry actor\u2019s expressiveness to convey a dog\u2019s grief. Peta Hitchens<\/a>\u2019s Australian documentary \u201cFilming Dogs\u201d investigates a psychological question: Do pets like her own really enjoy performing for movies and television?<\/p>\n Intriguingly, Juhi Sharma\u2019s comedy \u201cPurrrfect Intervention\u201d features no animals \u2014 <\/span>until the credits. Kisha Peart<\/a>, who produced and wrote it, stars as a New Yorker so cat-obsessed that her friends arrange treatment for her.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, I\u2019m a cat lady,\u201d Peart said, adding that she turned her own pet\u2019s camera shyness into a visual joke. Her character, she said, is \u201cthis crazy cat lady, but where are her cats?\u201d<\/p>\n Live animals won\u2019t attend the screenings, either, but they will be at parties<\/a> on the eve of each festival. These celebrations, which require separate tickets<\/a>, will feature mingling with the filmmakers and authors of books about pets. One of Hotchner\u2019s contacts even arranged for a visiting celebrity at the pooch festivities: Bastian the Talking Terrier<\/a>, whose YouTube channel<\/a> has almost two million subscribers.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know any famous dogs,\u201d said Hotchner, who owns two Weimaraners. \u201cBut he said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n NY Cat Film Festival<\/strong><\/p>\n Saturday at the Village East by Angelika, Manhattan; catfilmfestival.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n NY Dog Film Festival<\/strong><\/p>\n Sunday at the Village East by Angelika, Manhattan; dogfilmfestival.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n