20TH CENTURY DOGS:

DOGS OF THE AVANT-GARDE (ART FILM DOGS!)

     It is a little known fact that dogs love and remotely understand avant-garde, abstract art.  Yes, it’s quite true!  And since it is believed that dogs are somewhat colorblind, what could be better than for dogs to create and explore conceptual art cinema?  Basically it’s all black and white.  Color film just doesn’t cut it.  And dogs know that.

     It is also not a widely known fact that dogs have the ability to operate motion picture cameras—but they do.  If dogs, like Benji and Lassie, can act in films, why shouldn’t they know how to operate cameras or direct the films themselves?  It really is a no-brainer.  Dogs may not be able to construct the actual movie cameras (due to having dewclaws instead of opposing thumbs) but we all know dogs are experts at stealing things and burying them, even machinery. Art Historians have uncovered a remarkable number of movie cameras hidden in dirt-filled holes by enthusiastic, artsy canines. Obviously, gophers didn’t do this.  Secret Dog Society and Dog Culture tells us that dogs have been on the cutting-edge of creating concept-based cinema for years.  Of course, this obsession in artistic canine filmmaking started with mimicking us humans… 

     Inspired by human filmmaking techniques in the 1920’s, Art Historians and Animal Behavioralists believe that art-hungry dogs began to notice cinema by sneaking into darkened cafes’ to view the most outrageous and inventive movies of the day.  A canine favorite, Un Chien Andalou (translated to English as: An Andalusian Dog) was a Surrealist project by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali. One would assume American dogs from Hollywood would be the earliest to explore the act of filmmaking, but European dogs were the first to be exposed to the cinematic process.  Hollywood dogs were rarely able to sneak into the grand theaters of the day and really did not understand narrative stories very well, so European Surrealist and Dadaist films were a perfect fit for them.  Plus, the loose, easy-going bohemian French culture made it possible for these dogs to obtain the artistic experience and edge they needed to create art.

     One such Surrealistic dog film of note, by director Fido’ Chevalier, was a black and white silent masterpiece titled: Bark Bark un Bark.  The bizarre, unearthly plot centered around several Brussels Griffons and Chinese Cresteds doing somersaults upon their own food and rubbing their small heads in water.  Dogs of the 1920’s would discuss the technique and concept of this film for years. 

     By the 1960’s, the art world was buzzing with excitement for humans—and dogs!  Paris (with it’s New Wave Cinema) was not the only place on earth to enjoy black and white, somewhat grainy, oddly edited art films.  There were many dog filmmakers exploding on the art scene in New York.  One Andy Warholesque director, Barkentine, shot literally twelve hours of a beagle sniffing a stinky spot in the grass.  And like Andy, this canine director believed filmmaking was at it’s best when the director pushed the “go” button on the camera and just simply  walked away.  No editing.  Barkentine’s film, Sniff, would be all the rage in underground movie houses for dogs that were popping up all over Brooklyn and Manhattan. (These experimental movie houses were generally found in junkyards or around fire hydrants.)

     Art Historians and Animal Behavioralists are grateful today to have uncovered so many secret art films made exclusively by dogs.  Though humans created this genre in the beginning, their loyal, if not somewhat sneaky, dogs followed their trend in developing a remarkable and inspirational collection of conceptual black and white cinematic treasures.  So what if movie cameras went missing?  We can now simply dust the dirt off their lenses and embrace the filmmaking art dogs of the Twentieth Century…because every dog needs their fifteen minutes of fame!