Director Todd Beiber examines humans’ relationships with their feline friends, and the movement to ban the practice of declawing, in American Cats: The Good, the Bad and the Cuddly. We posed our Qs à la mode to Todd, and here’s what he shared!
If I had to describe my film using only three adjectives, they would be: Good, bad, cuddly.
I decided to make this film because: I love cats.
The thing that surprised me most about my film’s subject/topic was: I was surprised by the extent to which kittens are impacted by late stage capitalism.
My favorite moment/scene/sequence in my film is: My favorite moment had to be watching a cat that looks astonishingly like Adam Driver get a glitter gold manicure.
The most challenging part of making my film was: It was nearly impossible to get cats to do the activities we needed for b-roll. See below for solution.
My most invaluable piece of doc-making gear was/is: I don’t think this will apply to any other documentary, but not a day went by when I didn’t use a laser pointer to get a cat to look where I wanted them to.
One piece of documentary-filmmaking advice I’d like to share with aspiring documentarians is: Spend as much time on pre-production as you do in production and post.
Want to check out Todd’s film, or just learn more about it?
Get the scoop, and your tickets, here!
