Year of the Dog (2022)

Companions

COMPANIONS deals with the love between people and dogs. It’s made up of scenes of intimacy—caresses, habits, games, cares, stories of coming and loss, of protection, and uprooting. The stories intertwine and make up a map of love and its enigmas.

Tiny Things

The life and work of a retired model maker.

The Dog Doc

Called a maverick, a miracle-worker, and a quack, Dr. Marty Goldstein is a pioneer of integrative veterinary medicine. By holistically treating animals after other vets have given up, Goldstein provides a last hope for pet owners with nothing left to lose.

Canine

A family in rural area of West Java, Indonesia enjoys their time with 'Ngadu Bagong', a sundanese traditional game where dogs put to fight against a wild boar in a single event. Ngadu Bagong has always been some sort of animal abuse but it's been in the tradition for a long time. Ade Rohmat has been in the game for a long time; a hobby that he now passes on to his daughter, Ilma Nurjanah. The potentially controversial Ngadu Bagong has always brought intense emotion, prestige, and fortune upon its practicioners.

Space Dogs

Laika, a stray dog, was the first living being to be sent into space and thus to a certain death. A legend says that she returned to Earth as a ghost and still roams the streets of Moscow alongside her free-drifting descendants. While shooting this film, the directors little by little realised that they knew the street dogs only as part of our human world; they have never looked at humans as a part of the dogs’ world.

Canine Soldiers: The Militarization of Love

A documentary exploring the experience of going to war with a Military Working Dog, trained to find bombs before they can kill or maim soldiers, often at the expense of the dog's sanity.

Det svåra livet

This documentary follows Pia, who is homeless. She is struggling with her drug addiction. During the day she (and many other homeless people) sells the newspaper Situation Sthlm.

Det nya livet

It has been three years since Tom Alandh made the film "Det svåra livet" about homeless drug addict Pia. This film shows what has happened to her since.

Leva Livet

Ten years after documentary filmmaker Tom Alandh started filming homeless drug addict Pia Sjögren, he makes his third and final film about her. Pia was 14 years old when she started smoking cannabis and using drugs. Then it all happened really fast. The heavier drugs, the men who beat, and years of cold nights in basements and attics. Treatment and punishment. Rehabs and prisons. Relapse. Constantly back, at the complete bottom, among shame and guilt. For ten years, Tom Alandh and photographer Björn Henriksson documented Pia's life. Two films were made, this is the third and last film, which shows how she managed to get clean against all odds.

Streetwise

This documentary about teenagers living on the streets in Seattle began as a magazine article. The film follows nine teenagers who discuss how they live by panhandling, prostitution, and petty theft.

A Dog's Life

A Dog's Life examines how our canine companions perceive the world - from the moment they take their first morning walk to the time they curl up at our feet to go to sleep. We accompany Daisy, a Jack Russell Terrier, through an average day and on the way discover that, while dogs are not miniature humans, they are amazingly well adapted to life with us. But how well do we know them?

The Salt Mines

Explores the lives of Sara, Gigi and Giovanna, three Latino transvestites who for years have lived on the streets of Manhattan supporting their drug addictions through prostitution. They made their temporary home inside broken garbage trucks that the Sanitation Department keeps next to the salt deposits used in the winter to melt the snow. The three friends share the place known as "The Salt Mines".

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

A homeless musician finds meaning in his life when he starts a friendship with dozens of parrots.

Seattle is Dying

KOMO Anchor Eric Johnson takes an in-depth look at the impact the drug and homelessness problem is having on our city and possible solutions in "Seattle is Dying," a news documentary that aired on KOMO-TV in March, 2019.

A Dog Called Laura

Martin Clunes explores the secret lives of Britain’s heroic army of guide dogs, inspired by a podcast story of a blind woman whose life had been changed by her guide dog but who now faces the daunting task of finding a new dog.

To Be of Service

A documentary film about veterans with PTSD who find that, after other treatments fall short, a service dog helps them return to an independent feeling life.

Ice Dogs: The Only Companions Worth Having

The Arctic is accessible to man only because of ice dogs. As hunters, haulers, and guardians, they have been our vital link to nature for thousands of years. Dogs led the Sarqaq people out of Siberia and, a millennium later, led explorers to the North Pole. As the light returns to Greenland, we arrive in Scoresbysund with a troop of the only companions worth having in this harsh environment.

The Secret Life of Dogs

The Secret Life of Dogs explores how man's best friend experiences the world. Tap into dogs' inner psyche in order to determine the true meaning behind various behaviors and body language. Delve deep into canine biology as it is studied through slow-motion footage, thermal images and macro photography, providing new insights into how dogs drink, shake off water, and whether your best friend is left or right pawed.

Beethoven's Symphony

After constantly moving, two students finally find the opportunity to start a family by adopting a stray dog.

Refugee Poetry

The Kurdish Iraqi poet and actor Zeravan Khalil travels with his dog through an Alpine gorge after fleeing from IS war and genocide. As he remembers the abomination, he writes a poem with the title “You drive me mad” in Kurmanji Kurdish. In his home country, Yazidic Kurds are forbidden to work in his profession. Then he eats his apple and wanders through Europe’s middle with more hope.

The Hotel of Waifs

Waifs, homeless, derelicts, almsmen, others, forgettens, outcasts, unwanteds. The Hotel of Waifs; a temporary resting place far from home, an amusement in a pale fun fair, an enthusiastic trip on roundabout ways of soul.

Crónica de un galgódromo

Gardeners, veterinarians and breeders. And some imposing mammals capable of running at seventy kilometers per hour: the baths in the sun, the runway before the confrontation. And the money, the bets and the runners speed around a dizzying track.

Animal Love

In conurbations where hundreds of thousands live alongside one another, in the era of a highly technological society, in which communication has never played such a significant role, man has become lonely. Disappointed by his fellow human beings, he turns to animals. Dogs and other domestic animals serve him as companions, life partners, cuddly objects and bedfellows.

Norman Norman

A young woman grapples with the declining health of her beloved dog in this film about mortality, cloning, and Barbra Streisand.

Fora da Caridade Não Há Salvação

Plot unavailable

The Truffle Hunters

In the secret forests of Northern Italy, a dwindling group of joyful old men and their faithful dogs search for the world’s most expensive ingredient, the white Alba truffle. Their stories form a real-life fairy tale that celebrates human passion in a fragile land that seems forgotten in time.

Le compagnon déloyal

Plot unavailable

Wind, Talk to Me

In Wind, Talk to Me, Stefan reunites with his family to celebrate his grandmother's birthday for the first time after his mother's recent passing. This homecoming, driven by his urge to complete a film about his mother and an attempt to make amends by rescuing a stray dog, will ignite an introspective journey for Stefan. Inspired by the director's real-life experiences and starring his actual family members in a mission to complete a lake house and a film, Wind, Talk to Me is an intimate cinematic exploration of the timeless mother-son relationship.

No Country for the Poor

What if democracy fails citizens by not serving them all equally? What if inequality becomes the norm and the most vulnerable citizens are left behind with no money, no home, no rights, and no country of their own? In Hungary, the government has slashed social benefits and criminalized homelessness, but a group of activists, homeless and middle class, is confronting authorities to defend social justice and their right to be citizens. After the tragic death of two of its founding members, the group feels that Hungary is growing more hostile and their struggle is more important than ever. Despite all odds, their own community keeps them going—a mini-society with democracy and solidarity at its heart, an island of hope, belonging and dignity in a society gradually shifting the other way.

Bloodhound Dog

Bloodhound dog handlers have an essential role in Québec’s hunting ecosystem. Thanks to them, a large number of wounded and lost animals are found during hunting season. They are an important resource for wildlife protection and management. This short film meets one of them, Yves Martineau, and follows the long waits and intense research that comes with the job. In the heart of the Canadian forest, on Matane’s wildlife reserve, we follow this man and his dogs through the vastness of the woods.

Queen Mimi

Forced onto the streets in her 50s, Marie found "home" at a Santa Monica laundromat. Taking shelter there for 20 years, Mimi's passion for pink, and living without looking back, has taken her from homelessness to Hollywood's red carpets.

Inside the Mind of a Dog

Embark on a delightful journey into the world of dogs in this documentary that reveals scientific and emotional insights about our lovable BFFs.