Cat Ladies
Directors: Christie Callan-Jones
Producers: Sally Blake, Jeanette Loakman, Suzanne Mullett
Cinematographers: Mark Ellam, Stefan Randstrom
Editor: Sally Blake
Version Editor: Eamonn O'Connor
Official Selection: Hot Docs 2009
Review
By Chris Knight, National Post
Cat Ladies
Co-presented with the Toronto Humane Society, this inside look at the lives of four professed cat ladies manages to walk a fine line between sympathy and reprobation, and on a broader level between comedy and tragedy. Watching as one woman opens a box full of whiskers she’s been collecting, holding a few of them up to her face as she starts meowing various impressions of her animal companions, it’s at once hilarious and utterly sad. There’s also some controversy here over whether a woman with upwards of 100 cats is rescuing them from the streets or hoarding them for her own psychological needs. This is a nice, carefully constructed doc that goes beyond the clichés and stereotypes of lonely, senile and feline-dependent women.
3 stars
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