Kitbull

A short animated film set in San Francisco. There is a street cat. A kitten, black, and she goes near nobody. She lives in a box. She eats what she finds and trusts no one. A dog is brought into the next yard. A pit bull. Chained, and his owner treats him badly. The cat sees him. She runs at first. The dog does nothing to her. He only looks, and wags his tail. From there the film is a story of approach. The cat comes a little closer to the fence, then into the yard, then sleeps beside the dog. There is no speech. The narrative runs entirely on movement. The man takes the dog to a fight. The animal comes back injured. The cat goes to him. What the narrative is interested in is not animals but trust: its idea is that both of them have been hurt by others, and that their coming together happens entirely without a word. One day the police come. The dog is taken. The cat follows. The ending is short and direct. The drawing is done by hand. The characters are two-dimensional; the backgrounds were built on a computer. That choice drew attention. The studio behind it had long been producing three-dimensional animation and this short is hand-drawn. The running time is nine minutes. It is part of the studio's short film programme, which opens room for younger directors. Rosana Sullivan directed. She said she started from her own dog and from the shelters in the city. The film was nominated for the animated short Oscar. Who it is for: anyone who likes short animation and animal stories. Who it is not for: anyone who does not want to be upset; the dogfighting line is brief but explicit and some scenes are hard.