The purpose of the Cat Video Fest, as well as the NY Cat Film Festival, is primarily to raise money for cat-related charities.
Far from Venice, where superstars and auteurs of the human variety are taking their bows before adoring audiences and serious cineastes, a film festival of an entirely different kind, featuring some of the world’s biggest celebrities of the four-legged kind is on. Currently touring the US, the Cat Video Fest is exactly what it sounds like: Over an hour’s worth of some of the world’s best cat videos. And it’s not the only one of its kind. The NY Cat Film Festival, which opens next month, too will have documentaries, features and animated shorts about felines.
Those familiar with the deep connection that cats have with the history of communication technology are unlikely to be surprised by these developments. This is a connection that goes all the way back to 1894 when Thomas Edison made the world’s first “cat video” when he was testing his Kinetograph by filming a pair of feline “boxers” (The Boxing Cats). Cut to the 21st century, when the switch to HTML5 from Flash, which significantly improved the multimedia experience of the internet, is credited to the popularity of cat-related online content. In other words, not only are cats one of the most popular subjects for amateur filmmaking on mobile phones, they’ve also shaped the way such content is consumed.
The purpose of the Cat Video Fest, as well as the NY Cat Film Festival, is primarily to raise money for cat-related charities. Reports from the former paint a picture of theatres filled with happy, laughing people, relieved of their worries, even if only for an hour, as they watch cats run, sleep, smack each other and goof around. At a time when movie theatres around the world are struggling to draw audiences, could cat film festivals offer a solution? Felines have shown the way before, there is no reason they won’t do so now.
