MINE, A Film on Hurricane Katrina Pets Showing at Marin Valley Film Festival 10/17 & 10/18

One of the highlights of this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival will be the screening of MINE, a documentary by Bay Area filmmaker Geralyn Pezanoski. The film tells the stories of animals left behind in Hurricane Katrina, the efforts to reunite pets with their human families, and the power of the human-animal bond.

The film presents multiple perspectives – that of rescue workers, the animals’ original guardians and the animals’ adoptive parents -- and explores the custody disputes that arose between original guardians and adoptive guardians over Katrina pets.

The events surrounding pets caught in Katrina are drama on an epic scale. Countless evacuees were forced or made the hard choice to leave New Orleans without their pets. Hundreds of thousands of animals were dead or missing after the hurricane. Thousands of pets were rescued and taken to local shelters where they waited for their humans to show up. But with New Orleans residents relocated all over the country, many in financial straits, shelters began running out of room. Decisions to transport Katrina animals to shelters and adoptive homes in other parts of the country were made. Later, when original pet guardians located their animals, they wanted to be reunited with them. But adoptive guardians wanted the pets too.



Who should get the animal in a King Solomon-esque situation like that? What’s best for the animal? Who should decide these sorts of questions? Pets are still viewed as property under our law – should they be? MINE explores these compelling issues and more.

I can’t wait to see this movie. It sounds enthralling, thought-provoking and deeply moving. It’s been shown this year at select locations throughout the country and has been very well-received. The film won the 2009 Audience Award at the esteemed South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

Bay Area folks can see MINE on October 17th at 5:00 p.m. at the Sequoia Theater in Mill Valley, and October 18th at 12:30 p.m. at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. To buy tickets visit the Festival website at http://mvff2009.inticketing.com/filmlist.php.

In the meantime, you can check out a movie clip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6pSbRXIjGI.

Lisa-Anne Manolius is the multi- talented owner/trainer of Oh Behave! in San Francisco. A graduate of the S.F. SPCA's Academy for Dog Trainers and U.C. Berkeley's Boalt School of Law, she's available for dog behavior consultations, private training sessions, and to teach a variety of group classes. She can be reached at lisaohbehave@gmail.com.

About InCirclePets.com: We highlight locally-owned pet businesses, non-profits and organizations as well as pet-friendly activities. We think the Bay Area is an amazing spot in which to have an animal, yet we know that many hidden gems go unnoticed and local spots may not get the attention they deserve. We hope to fill in this gap. If you think we could be doing things better, send us an email . Click here to learn more about us.