You may have heard people say “cat videos rule the internet.” Well, now, cat videos are coming to the big screen.
This weekend, the Enzian Theater is hosting “Cat Video Fest,” and yes, it’s exactly like it sounds – the best recent cat videos, curated by festival head and filmmaker Will Braden.
Braden says cat videos bring people together, and in this case, people will be helping cats, too - Pet Rescue by Judy is a partnering organization. You might say it’s a purrrfect combination. Ahem.
Will Braden:
Every year, I watched 12,000-plus cat videos. I take that hit, it's a very difficult job [laughter]. And then I cull it down and get together about a 75-minute reel of all the best stuff. So when you come to the theater, it's just nonstop cats. And it's funny and touching and interesting. And there's a lot of the cat videos that you would imagine, which is just sort of like accidental, sort of America's Funniest Home Videos. But there's also little tiny short films, little mini-documentaries, there's animated things, there's music videos, anything you can imagine with a cat in it, you'll probably see an example of it.
Nicole Darden Creston:
And as I understand it, when you buy a ticket, some of the proceeds go to a local shelter. Can you tell me about that?
Will Braden:
Yeah, everywhere we go, we partner with a local, either shelter or animal welfare organization, or a fostering group. It's part of the DNA of the show. In fact, if we get an offer to do a show, and there isn't a charitable partner, then we don't do it generally. So in Orlando, it's Pet Rescue by Judy. And she's has a great history of doing fostering. And at the Enzian Theater, because they're such a cool theater, and they have such a sort of eclectic kind of vibe there, they actually have her there with kittens that are available for adoption! And so if you go there and really find yourself in a cat frenzy, you might be able to adopt a kitten and then say, "Yeah, I got this kitten at Cat Video Fest," which is pretty cool.
Nicole Darden Creston:
So tell me how this idea started and how long you've been doing it?
Will Braden:
Well, in 2012, was the first internet Cat Video Festival and I didn't run things then. It was just an idea by Scott Stullen and Katie Hill at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. And they just decided, "We have this great outdoor space, we have this program to do different kinds of curated exhibits outside, let's just play some cat videos and see what happens." And 11,000 people showed up! And a video that I made won the Golden Kitty Award that year. And I just sunk my claws in, you know, pun intended, and just kept being more and more involved every year. And eventually I started curating the reel for the Walker Art Center. And then after 2015, they moved on to other projects, and I took it over. So it's about 10 years, I've been involved full-time in cat videos, but just since 2016, I've been in charge of the organization. I'm based here in Seattle. My business cards literally say, "I watch cat videos." [laughter] You can't beat it.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Yeah, I can imagine! You were talking about a prize that you won...?
Will Braden:
Yes, in 2012 at that first Cat Video Fest, they had audience voting for the Golden Kitty Award, which was sort of the People's Choice Award and the Best Picture Award all wrapped into one. And a short film that I made about Henri, a depressed French existential cat in black and white, won the Golden Kitty Award. So I actually got to go up on stage and accept the award. And it was kind of funny because I was there in person, I told them, even before I knew I was going to win anything I just said, "I'm flying out for this. This is the first Cat Video Festival. I'm not missing it." And so then a day before the organizers were like, "Well, we actually have to create an award, like we're gonna have to hand this guy something!" So they got a little cat piggy bank, and glued it onto sort of a kid's trophy thing. And that was the Golden Kitty. And it's one of my most prized possessions. And then I got up on stage because I asked if I could say thank you. And I said, "I'm so excited. I'm pouring so loudly," in front of all these thousands of people. And then I said, "I'll be back here next year with another video at the next year's Cat Video Festival and there was this huge cheer. And so I stepped off the stage, and Scott said, "Well, I guess we're doing this again next year, because Will just told 11,000 people, we'd be back!" [laughter] So I kind of made sure that they couldn't move on too quickly to other projects.
Nicole Darden Creston:
So after Henri's ennui, if you will...[laughter]. Did you do another one?
Will Braden:
Yeah, I did a series of them about 10 or 11 of them plus other types of things. Henri has two best selling books, that he claims that I am the thieving filmmaker who stole his ideas for my own profit. That's the joke. But yeah, he had a long and productive and very fun life. The real cat Henry has passed away. But he had a very long, happy life. He was not filled with ennui or any existential angst that I ever have figured out. It was just fun, and sort of a parody of that kind of film and that kind of philosophy. But yeah, that was my first foray into it. It was a film that I made with the cat when he was a year old in 2006 when I was in film school. So you never know what where the path of your life is going to take you! I tell people I had no idea that I would be still sitting here talking about cat videos all these years later, but I couldn't have imagined a better path.
Nicole Darden Creston:
So what kind of attendance do you get when you go to different cities and what kind of response?
Will Braden:
I mean, the fun thing about this show and the response is that there aren't that many things in the theater that are appealing to like a six-year-old and a 60-year-old, and it's "G" rated, and it's family friendly, and it has this great charitable component. So it's a really eclectic audience. It's a good mix, really, the only other place you're gonna get that is Taylor Swift, and our tickets are a lot cheaper. [laughter] So we tell people, you're gonna find a lot of funny cat ladies, there'll be people in costumes, but there'll also be people on first dates, families with kids, it's everybody. And we're in huge theaters sometimes, we're in, you know, performing arts centers, outdoor festivals, all kinds of stuff. But really, our bread and butter is theaters like Enzian, that are independent and eclectic and do kind of fun programming and do it in different ways. Because that's really what we do. So we're in some chains of theaters. And we're appreciative because it means we get to go everywhere. We're in a, you know, over 250 cities this year. But really, the bread and butter are theaters like Enzian. And I they're one of the first theaters that really got Cat Video Fest and wanted to show it every year and make it to be the sort of "event cinema," and so them and like the Music Box in Chicago, and Siff Cinema in Seattle, the Roxy in San Francisco, those kinds of theaters that just want to do weird stuff! So some people come to the shows, even if they aren't really cat people, because they're like, "I want to support this weird kind of stuff. Maybe I'm not so into cats, but I'll have a good time. And then the next time around, it'll be Llama Fest, something that I'm into." So yeah, there's something for everybody.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Why not dogs?
Will Braden:
Well, we did Dog Video Fest one year, but it was still sort of at the tail end of people coming back from COVID.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Did you just say tail end? [laughter]
Will Braden:
Yeah. I didn't even realize it! See, this is the problem, the puns just come so fast and loose, I don't even know. [laughter] But yeah, so it did pretty well in some places. I mean, we could certainly keep doing it. But I wanted to give this year to just be Cat Video Fest and then we'll see next year, maybe we can do both. You know, there's just there's something about cats that's just an easier sell. Cats rule the internet. And it's a different kind of video, too. When I'm searching all these cat videos, I realized that if you see a cat jump from a stool to a counter and slip and fall, you chuckle...but if you saw a puppy doing the same thing, your first instinct would be, "Is the puppy okay?"
Nicole Darden Creston:
Yeah.
Will Braden:
So it's just a different vibe of videos. And I think, yeah, it may work someday. There's certainly people that really enjoy Dog Video Fest. But you know, you can never beat cats. There's just no way around it.
