Documentaries

Heart of a Dog

Laurie Anderson
USA 2015
75 min
V'15

Laurie Anderson’s eclectic career spans music, drawing, story-telling, performance, and more. Her new feature film, HEART OF A DOG, combines her multiple talents in a personal film essay. The dog of the title is her beloved rat terrier Lolabelle, who passed away in 2011 during a succession of family deaths that also included Anderson’s mother, Mary Louise, and husband, Lou Reed. Anderson’s close bond with Lolabelle underlies the film’s stream of consciousness, which flows through subjects as diverse as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings. She lingers particularly over the concept of the bardo, described in the tibetan “Book of the Dead” as the 49-day period between death and rebirth. Overlaying the film's tapestry of images – which include Anderson’s animation, 8mm home-movie footage, and lots of lovingly photographed dogs – is her melodic narration, full of warmth, humour, and insight. (Thom Powers)

Credits
  • Laurie Anderson
  • Laurie Anderson
  • Toshiaki Ozawa
  • Joshua Zucker Pluda
  • Melody London
  • Katherine Nolfi
  • Laurie Anderson
  • Laurie Anderson
Canal Street Communications

Celluloid Dreams

DCP
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