Whether real or animated, the Internet is obsessed with cats.
And now Animal Humane New Mexico is bringing frisky feline films to the state with its inaugural Albuquerque Internet Cat Video Festival this Friday and Saturday — just in time for Adopt a Shelter Cat month.
Called a collection of “the cattiest films in Albuquerque,” the festival is a fundraiser for homeless animals as well a competition for local filmmakers.
Laura Kuechenmeister, the marketing director for Animal Humane, said it is also an event where local cat lovers can celebrate their feline friends.
“It’s time for a cat event,” she said. “I love the idea of this event because it’s a really light-hearted way to celebrate the pets in our lives who are family members, but also help the homeless pets through raising funds (and) raising awareness of the fact that we have so many kittens right now.”
The festival acts as an awareness event for the annual boom of kittens in shelters during the summer. This year the city shelter is housing around 300 cats, and Animal Humane is housing another 100 cats, she said.
Animal Humane received around 20 submissions for the cat video contest. The best eight films will be screened at the festival on Friday, where three winners will then be announced. The rest of the videos will be published on the Animal Humane’s website on Saturday.
The videos come with a variety of themes, made to entertain and delight the viewers while engaging with a message.
One video, “One is Good,” was so effective with its message that it converted filmmaker Joanne Schmidt into a cat lover.
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As a dog person, Schmidt said she reached out to a friend for help with her video and met the film’s star feline, Angel.
“She’s just an incredibly sweet kitty,” Schmidt said. “For most of my life I had dogs as pets, and I didn’t understand how affectionate and approachable and warm and loving a cat would be.”
Some filmmakers, like cinematic arts program alum Angel Gil Lopez, took a more tongue-in-cheek approach to their final product.
Lopez’s “A Game of Cat and Mouse,” is a horror movie trailer about life from the eyes of his cat’s toy mice.
He said he wanted to make this video to highlight his kitten’s energetic personality and her “kitten quirks” without forcing her to do anything staged.
The Albuquerque Internet Cat Video Festival will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 3 p.m. on Saturday at the South Broadway Cultural Center. Admission is $25 per day and includes a festival T-shirt. Kids 4-12 are $7. Attendees can also participate in the VIP opening reception on Friday for $50.
Skylar Griego is the culture editor at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @TDLBooks.
