Space Dogs
A Dog's Life • 1h 31m
Directed by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter • Documentary • 2020 • 91 minutes
Laika, a stray dog picked up by the Soviet space program on the streets of Moscow, became the first living being to orbit the earth when she was launched into space on Sputnik 2. Although Laika would not survive the journey, directors Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter trace the persistence of her memory and legacy into the present day. As the capsule containing Laika re-entered Earth’s orbit and began to burn up, the narrator announces “What had been a Moscow street dog had become a ghost.”
The ghost Laika lives on in the present-day strays of SPACE DOGS. Photographed at ground level with wandering, hypnotic camera movements, the strays are seen navigating the urban environs of modern Moscow. In hewing closely to the dog’s point of view, the city is rendered as a strange, alien environment. Pulsating music from buildings and unidentified passerby take on an unfamiliar quality as the dogs explore this strange new world.
Archival footage of the Soviet space program is interwoven throughout the film, reveling in the bizarre tests and procedures the canines were subjected to in preparation for space travel. The hum of space-age machinery blends seamlessly with the hypnotic drone of the soundtrack, which in turn echoes the alien sounds of the modern city. With stunning cinematography and meditative pacing that recalls the work of Andrei Tarkovsky, SPACE DOGS is a singular work that de-centers humans in order to uncover a forgotten history.
“A complex work that goes under your skin.” —Film Comment
Up Next in A Dog's Life
-
Winter Nomads
Directed by Manuel von Sturler • Documentary • 2013 • 85 minutes
Pascal, 53, and Carole, 28, are shepherds. Every year in November they embark on their long winter transhumance: four months during which they will have to cover 600 km in the Swiss-French region, accompanied by three donkeys, four...
-
Buddy
Directed by Heddy Honigmann • Documentary • 2018 • 86 minutes
In this poignant and carefully composed portrait of six service dogs and their owners, renowned documentary filmmaker Heddy Honigmann explores the close bond between animal and human. Honigmann questions the owners in her characterist...
-
To Be of Service
Directed by Josh Aronson • Documentary • With Greg Kolodziejczyk and Valor, Thomas Flood and Mako, Phil Bauer and Champ, Sylvia Bowersox and Timothy, Brandon Lewis and Boothe • 2019 • 88 minutes
From Academy Award nominated Josh Aronson, and featuring a new song from Jon Bon Jovi, "To Be Of Serv...