Mine

A moving and eye-opening film and a special experience.
Mine is a documentary focused on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in relation to the pets left behind when people evacuated and were not permitted to bring their pets along on buses, to shelters, etc.

The first part is the immediate aftermath of the storm, when pet rescue organizations were coming into New Orleans and pulling animals out of abandoned houses. It is, of course, heartbreaking to see animals in distress. Some of those animals spent a long time alone on a roof or locked up in a house before they were rescued--some were emaciated, filthy, bug-ridden--but it is so wonderful to see them being rescued by people who truly care.

Next, the film discusses how the pets were distributed to shelters all around the country (quite amazing to see how many people and how many states were involved in this process). There was no system set up at the time for people to find their pets when they returned home; eventually, there was a system created but many of the...

Hurricane Katrina and the largest pet rescue in history
Great movie, everyone who loves their pets should see it. I can't praise it highly enough. As a Katrina survivor and animal lover it hits me on so many levels. It will bring tears of sadness and joy to many viewers, including me. As a documentary should it presents several sides of complex issues Katrina created without explicitly siding with one view. As a native and witness I believe I know who the true heroes are and those who acted dishonorably. Taking advantage of an unprecedented catastrophe to enforce their beliefs on helpless victims these people lied and prevented reunions which should have happened. People who in many cases lost everything they owned, whose sole hope was to find their pet(s), were denied custody of beloved animals "saved" by so-called rescuers. Mine shows some of this truly ugly side but most of the people covered by the film were eventually re-united with their 4 legged family. It might be unbearable to watch if it didn't. A short addendum covers...

Of people and pets.
(special thanks to Film Movement for providing me with a screener)

What makes us different from the beasts of the field? How are we not like other animals?

There's lots of ways, really. We've mastered fire, invented the internet and, sadly, brought Michael Bay into the universe. We're also unique among every other species that we know of in that we keep pets.

I've never been much of a dog person. I seem to remember my parents had a large dog when I was a toddler, but after they got divorced we just had cats. I loved the cats we had, especially Joey and Victoria who were with me from the age of about 8 until they died in the mid-1990's. Since then I haven't owned any pets (well, a few tropical fish). This hasn't been because I didn't want to, but because I've lived in places where I couldn't. So having owned pets and loved them dearly I do get at least something of a feeling for where the people in this movie are coming from.

The movie is a...

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