The New York Cat Film Festival Sneak Peek

PROGRAM 1“NOBODY OWNS A CAT” (70 minutes) at 3:00 PM

Pure Fluff (5:00) Sean Skelton’s documentary sketch of a professional cat groomer, who shows how it’s done.

Winter Break (5:00) Rick Hamilton’s funny story of a preschool teacher who has only her cat for company during winter break.

Jetty Cats (56:00) Sheila O’Rourke’s sweeping overview of cats throughout human history, while exploring the contemporary debate about Trap-Neuter-Return as the best management for community cats by looking at a long-surviving feral cat colony on a seaside jetty in Southern California.

Amleto (2:00) Jeff Malmberg’s visual “poem” to the morning ritual of a Tuscan cat.

PROGRAM #2 “LITTLE WORKS OF ART” (68 minutes) at 4:30

Rescue (2:00) Filmmaker Lava Sheets’ self-portrait of the isolation and depression of being disabled, imagining the consoling thoughts of her devoted kitty, Apple Brown Betty.

Akamatsu the Cat (10:00) Ian Christopher Goodman’s documentary about life with a disabled kitty cat, Akamatsu, who was hit by a car and paralyzed but went on to live another 4 vibrant years with the use of a wheelchair.

Portrait of a Cat Fighter (4:00) Graceann Dorse’s mockumentary spoof gives a funny peek at what a New Jersey “cat fighting ring” run by mahjong-playing old ladies might look like.

Guardians of Recoleta (21:00) Blake & Adrienne Kuhre (who run their own non-profit cat rescue in Los Angeles) examined the community cats living in the iconic Buenos Aires Recoleta cemetery, and what became of the cats removed by well-meaning American rescuers.

Gus the Cat (5:00) Lisa Donato’s quirky film about Gus, who seems to think he is a cat and can hide his identity from others, although the people around him can see right through his mask.

Mittens from Kittens (4:00) Kim Best’s quirky documentary showing how one woman’s nuisance cat fur is another woman’s inspiration to spin and knit it into useful items.

Scaredy, the Cat (8:00) Markie Hancock’s heartwarming documentary about a very shy cat who avoids everyone where she was adopted – at the tennis courts in NYC’s Riverside park- except for a few choice people whom she eagerly greets.

Little Works of Art (13:00)Kim Best ‘s look at Harold “Cat Man” Sims’ and his self-styled American Museum of the House Cat in Sylva, NC, which houses over 10,000 cat-related objects and honors cats as “little works of art.” In addition, it supports Sims’ own no-kill, open space cat shelter and adoption efforts.