Snowy
The doors are closed. There are no more screenings of this film.
Synopsis: Every November, co-Directors Alex Wolf Lewis and Kaitlyn Schwalje eat Thanksgiving dinner at Alex’s Aunt and Uncle’s house just outside of Philadelphia. And every November, they marvel at the fact that the family’s 4-inch-long pet turtle, Snowy, is still alive. Snowy has lived an isolated life in the family basement for the past 10+ years with minimal sunlight and no companionship other than that of his primary caretaker, Uncle Larry. In an effort to improve Snowy’s life we ask: Is Snowy happy? And is Snowy even capable of experiencing happiness?
This short documentary is both an investigation into animal happiness and an intervention to improve one turtle’s life.
Language
Run Time
Directed by
Alexander Lewis
Director's Statement
In this film, we explore our capacity to understand the animals that live in our homes. Snowy’s story is a stand-in for the unexamined lives of our house pets—the goldfish, lizards, guinea pigs, and hermit crabs of our childhoods—the JV squad of house pets—the ones too small, short-lived and expressionless to garner much of our human attention. Snowy is also about how little we understand life experiences outside our own and the extent to which true understanding is even possible.