In many parts of the world, cats and rats are seen as natural enemies: one is the hunter, the other the prey. But at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, running from Sept. 29 to Oct. 14, cats and rats will set aside the hostilities and share the cinematic spotlight together. 

Kedi and Rat Film, two documentary films playing at the festival, examine the myriad of relationships humans have with felines and rodents. One is generally beloved the world over, another is generally reviled as pests, but both films invite their audiences to see a mirror reflection of themselves in the way they treat these creatures.

Scurrying through the streets of Baltimore

Theo Anthony, the director of Rat Film, first got the idea for his film when walking home one night. Hearing a rustling in a trash can, he looked in to see a rat trapped.

“I took out my iPhone and balanced it on top and filmed the rat as it exhausted itself trying to get out. The footage really haunted me,” says Anthony.

Rat Film tells the story of rats in Baltimore, as an occasion to tell the history of Baltimore’s demographics and urban development. According to Anthony, Baltimore is a visibly segregated city, with black and white communities occupying different areas of the city. He wanted to draw parallels between the way humans treated rats, the way the upper class treated the underclasses and the class and race problems that come with it. Sometimes these issues were related. For instance, in the mid-20th century, black communities were used as an experimental test bed for rat poison deployment and pest control programs.

“It was always my goal to show how the story of Baltimore is the story of a lot of places, how the questions raised by rats and maps are really universal questions,” says Anthony. “I saw the rat as a way to not only map these divisions but also to transgress them.”

By using a multilayered structure – cutting away at points in the film to examine archival documents, photographs and virtual reality sequences – Anthony takes an interdisciplinary approach by blending history together with narrative and topographical analysis. As a result, he makes intriguing connections between seemingly disparate places, ideas and events.

He also infuses his film with stories and actions of several Baltimoreans, from those interested in the best way of catching and killing rats to others waxing philosophical using rats to muse about the nature of life itself. Harold Edmond, veteran rat exterminator of Baltimore’s Public Works’ ‘Rat Rubout’ crew and one of the Baltimoreans featured in the film, impressed Anthony the most with his candid and sincere take on the social and health problems raised by rodent infestations.

“There’s never been a rat problem in Baltimore,” Edmond says to Anthony in the film. “It’s always been a people problem.”

The film posits no easy answers to the complex problems it raises, but Anthony hopes the film allows his audiences to think differently about the way one thinks about a social problem.

“I hope that people will look at the critical form in which people, images and history are treated in this film and can apply new models of critical thinking in their own lives however they see fit,” Anthony says.

A unique purr-spective of Istanbul

Between the gorgeous aerial shots of Istanbul and the street-level shots of cats eating, sleeping or roaming around the city, Kedi director Ceyda Torun paints a moving picture of the everyday lives of the Turkish people and its feline inhabitants.

Growing up with street cats in Istanbul, Torun originally wanted to create a nature documentary in an urban environment. In the process of making the film, Torun became interested in the complex bond and mutual challenges humanity shares with its feline companion.

“[The documentary became] an exploration of our relationship to nature, especially in big cities where there is a greater need to keep nature under control,” says Torun. “I came to realize just how important that relationship is to our wellbeing as well as to nature herself.”

Cats have a long history in Istanbul. As a port city along the Bosphorus, ships from all over Europe would come with cargo and cats. Disembarking with the cargo and not returning to the ships, meant that cats from all over the world called Istanbul their new home. Later, when the Ottomans expanded the city’s sewer system, cats were used to help control the increasing rat population.

“That’s why every house had a cat,” an Istanbul resident enthusiastically tells Torun.

Following seven cats and the various people they encounter, Torun draws attention to the way their lives are similar and intricately connected. A recurring theme in the film is the way humans project their desires, fears, hopes and dreams onto the feline. One sees grace and elegance in the way felines carry themselves. Another sees our interaction with cats as an example of how we may interact with extraterrestrial life forms.

Torun hopes this focus on cats help others rethink the way the world sees Istanbul and humanizes its inhabitants by providing a more intimate perspective of the city than is found in tourism pamphlets and news headlines.

“Most importantly, I hope the film helps initiate conversations about how we treat nature when building cities and examine our attitude towards all the other animals we share our world with,” says Torun.

For further information about these films, please visit www.theoanthony.net and www.kedifilm.com

For film show times, please visit the festival website, www.viff.org