Quarantine Cat Film Fest Will Raise Funds for Independent Theaters Closed by COVID-19
The quarantined felines of the world are coming for your screens
ike other businesses shuttered by the COVID-19 pandemic, independent movie theaters have taken a huge hit in recent months. But these boutique cultural mainstays appear to have found an unexpected ally: the worlds domesticated felinesor, at least, those stuck at home with their tech-savvy humans.
This week, the team behind Row House Cinema in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, announced a fundraising bid that doubles as some much-needed feline fun during these troubling times. The first-ever Quarantine Cat Film Fest invites felines and their
Homo sapien friends to submit shelter-in-place cat videos that will be compiled into a movie set to premiere digitally on June 19. Dozens of independent cinemas around the country have already partnered with Row House to screen the film on various digital platforms. The event will be ticketed, with half of net proceeds going toward keeping participating businesses afloat.
The internet exists because of cats, jokes Row House Cinema owner Brian Mendelssohn, who helped spearhead the effort, in an interview with Bryan Alexander of
USA Today. (In truth, the invention of the internet had some military motivations; it also involved some tipsy, beer-sipping scientists. Whether or not cats intervened in this mess remains unclear.)
Its just fun to watch cats do cool things, adds Mendelssohn, whose wife cooked up the idea after watching the cooped-up shenanigans of the couples cats, Oliver and Isabella.
More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/quarantine-cat-film-fest-raise-funds-independent-theaters-closed-covid-19-180974828/