Dogs are the stars of our hearts, and now they’ll be the stars of the big screen. The first ever dog film festival—yup, films exclusively about dogs—is coming to the Music Box Theatre in Lakeview. A dream come true, honestly.
The Dog Film Festival, started last year, is making its rounds throughout the country in 12 cities, landing in Chicago on Sunday, Sept. 11. The festival will feature two lineups of films, with each program running around 90 minutes and 50 percent of ticket proceeds benefiting PAWS Chicago.
“The films we’re showing are all about the bond between dogs and their humans,” said festival founder Tracie Hotchner, a pet wellness advocate and author of “The Dog Bible.” “It’s basically a canine magic carpet ride.”
Hotchner is also the founder of the Radio Pet Lady Network, a collection of podcasts and radio shows featuring veterinarians and pet experts talking about a variety of pet-related topics. She began the Dog Film Festival as a way to expand on the network’s outreach programs and give dogs their due for being the unsung best members of families across the country.
“I just have so much love for them,” Hotchner said. “And people who love a species would hopefully love to come and experience that emotion together.”
Merrill Markoe, the creator of the “Late Night with David Letterman” segment “Stupid Pet Tricks,” has two short films featured at the festival. The first, “The Lewis Lectures,” is an animated piece showing what dogs actually do when their owners leave the house—think “The Secret Life of Pets.” The second is “A Conversation with my Dogs,” in which the quick-witted comedian demands to know why her dogs follow her everywhere.
“Dogs are just inherently amusing,” Markoe said. “They live with us in a world that means something totally different to them. They’re like exchange students from Neptune.”
While both programs are family-friendly, the first lineup features funny featurettes, from “Game of Bones” by Australian director Blaire Dobiecki (which is exactly what it sounds like) to “The Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold,” a restored 35-mm film from 1995 that’s been remastered by director William Wegman.
The second lineup features more serious content, such as “Second Chances,” a documentary directed by Steven Latham about female prisoners who train dogs from shelters, and other films about the bonds dogs can create both between themselves and humans and between humans. The second group also includes four films in foreign languages with subtitles.
Tickets are $15 per screening and can be purchased on the Dog Film Festival’s website.
@shelbielbostedt | sbostedt@redeyechicago.com
