Gates of Heaven

the film that made werner herzog eat a shoe

the film that made werner herzog eat a shoe

The love the pet cemetery owner showed to the animals and families really touched me. Showing the headstones with the owner's writing destroyed me. I haven't cried since I started talking Zoloft but this broke through.

The love the pet cemetery owner showed to the animals and families really touched me. Showing the headstones with the owner's writing destroyed me. I haven't cried since I started talking Zoloft but this broke through.

This is a documentary for a different audience than I find myself in. I was expecting a focused doc about the creation of a neighborhood pet cemetery and the people and pets involved. For the most part, this does serve as a starting point for the documentary, but it let's the ship steer itself from there. One lady starts off talking about her pet, but quickly spiraled off onto a rant about what a piece of shit her son is and never gets back to the original topic. We get one guy who (I'm pretty sure) works at the cemetery who is much more interested in telling us about how he likes to chill and write songs. The documentary as a whole plays out similarly; we begin with a structured story about the beginning of this pet cemetery and then we chase enough tangents to the point where I am very confused about how we got from Point A to Point B. I'd have been fine with just a collection of stories from the people who entrusted their pets to the cemetery, but this is more like they found the people to interview and just let them go. Somewhere in here is a beautiful story of people loving their pets and trying to right by them in the end, but it's lost very early amongst the egos and the timeline that is hard to follow and missing many, many pieces. As soon as I'm getting invested in a tale, we veer off and never get back to it. My favorite people from the first chunk disappear and are forgotten. It feels purposeful and I think Morris made the film he wanted to make how he wanted to make it, but it's just not how I wanted it presented.

This is a documentary for a different audience than I find myself in. I was expecting a focused doc about the creation of a neighborhood pet cemetery and the people and pets involved. For the most part, this does serve as a starting point for the documentary, but it let's the ship steer itself from there. One lady starts off talking about her pet, but quickly spiraled off onto a rant about what a piece of shit her son is and never gets back to the original topic. We get one guy who (I'm pretty sure) works at the cemetery who is much more interested in telling us about how he likes to chill and write songs. The documentary as a whole plays out similarly; we begin with a structured story about the beginning of this pet cemetery and then we chase enough tangents to the point where I am very confused about how we got from Point A to Point B. I'd have been fine with just a collection of stories from the people who entrusted their pets to the cemetery, but this is more like they found the people to interview and just let them go. Somewhere in here is a beautiful story of people loving their pets and trying to right by them in the end, but it's lost very early amongst the egos and the timeline that is hard to follow and missing many, many pieces. As soon as I'm getting invested in a tale, we veer off and never get back to it. My favorite people from the first chunk disappear and are forgotten. It feels purposeful and I think Morris made the film he wanted to make how he wanted to make it, but it's just not how I wanted it presented.

To nie tylko opowieść o żałobie; to film o kreowaniu własnej ścieżki życia. Bardzo się cieszę, że każda gadająca głowa otrzymała czas nie tylko na zaadresowanie swojej miłości do czworonożnych przyjaciół, ale też do opowiedzenia nieco o sobie, o swoim hobby, przekonaniach i marzeniach. Być może to właśnie ta wizja miłości do bliźniego, jest czynnikiem wpływającym na niewielki (kruchy, mały, ale nadal) wzrusz. Jakkolwiek to infantylnie nie zabrzmi, to Saro, Łatku, Bilbo… bardzo za wami tęsknię!

To nie tylko opowieść o żałobie; to film o kreowaniu własnej ścieżki życia. Bardzo się cieszę, że każda gadająca głowa otrzymała czas nie tylko na zaadresowanie swojej miłości do czworonożnych przyjaciół, ale też do opowiedzenia nieco o sobie, o swoim hobby, przekonaniach i marzeniach. Być może to właśnie ta wizja miłości do bliźniego, jest czynnikiem wpływającym na niewielki (kruchy, mały, ale nadal) wzrusz. Jakkolwiek to infantylnie nie zabrzmi, to Saro, Łatku, Bilbo… bardzo za wami tęsknię!

Powtórka pod wystawienie brakującej oceny (i z okazji Święta). Po stracie ukochanego zwierzaka uderza mocniej - inaczej.

Powtórka pod wystawienie brakującej oceny (i z okazji Święta). Po stracie ukochanego zwierzaka uderza mocniej - inaczej.