{"id":47856,"date":"2025-05-22T21:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T01:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=47856"},"modified":"2025-05-21T22:06:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T02:06:13","slug":"cat-town-usa-siff2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/22\/cat-town-usa-siff2025\/","title":{"rendered":"CAT TOWN, USA [SIFF2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Bruce and Terry Jenkins run a unique sanctuary for elder cats in Jonathan Napolitano\u2019s cozy documentary Cat Town, USA.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cat Town, USA is a warm hug of a documentary. At any festival, or just the filmscape on the whole, you\u2019ll find many stories of heart-wrenching, terrifying tales of war and strife. They have their homes and are incredibly important. But just as important are the reminders of the kindness and love on this Earth. Of sitting back and enjoying peaceful moments with people, animals, and soft places. Jonathan Napolitano\u2019s Cat Town, USA is an easy slice of a life documentary following Bruce and Terry Jenkins and their unique retirement home for cats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a fan of niche slices of life, of people living their best lives in the way that works for them, even as many others may say \u201creally?\u201d, whether it be just living their world or especially in a documentary for all to see. At 2018\u2019s SIFF, Cat Walk explored the cat show circuit; as an amuse bouche was Cat\u2019s Cradle, the short expanded into the feature-length Cat Town, USA; both directed by Jonathan Napolitano.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cat\u2019s Cradle, of the short\u2019s title, is the home for up to thirty senior cats. A retirement home, if you will. Bruce and Terry Jenkins are the wonderful humans who care for them on their sprawling property in Lutz, Florida. They are a great pair of people, sweet eccentrics who first built a mini-town in their backyard as a special playground for children.\u00a0 Over time, that \u201cfor children\u201d became \u201cfor cats.\u201d Especially senior cats. Kittens get all the love – yes, they are the cutest little mewers, but it’s harder for the older fuzzbuckets to be taken in. Luckily for a selection of cats near Tampa, the Jenkins are there to provide love and care.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As an owner of a senior cat, my Harley is sixteen (and going strong, save some kidney issues), it\u2019s heartwarming to see so many cats cared for so well, with such an outpouring of love.\u00a0 Bruce and Terry have a love of animals and what they do. They work so well together as a pair, with the well-oiled machine of perfectly matched people, building on one another\u2019s strengths.\u00a0 We see how they keep it going, talk to the people in their lives, how loved they are, and how much love they put out. It\u2019s engaging watching them go through the ins and outs of running their sanctuary: the upkeep and growth, balancing the food and medicine needs of dozens of cats (and a few other animals!), and being members of their community.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I loved letting the documentary flow over me. Cat Town, USA is the sort of dropping cameras into people\u2019s (and cats\u2019) lives for a period of time and just presenting what is found, with said people filling in the wider picture for context. There isn\u2019t a dramatic push, in a good way. There are situations presented, such as a health scare in a human, but it\u2019s more in the \u201cit happened while filming.\u201d I\u2019m glad it\u2019s this and not a \u201cdocumentary about the fight to keep the sanctuary open,\u201d but \u201clet\u2019s watch this sanctuary thrive for 75 minutes.\u201d It\u2019s a refreshing lightness in an often dark world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I could watch B-roll of cats just being cats for hours. Of course, I can! Cat\u2019s Cradle has 24\/7 webcams of the cats, along with shows by Bruce.\u00a0 See <\/span>www.cats-cradle.org<\/span><\/a> for live webcams, information about the cats, and to help Bruce and Terry on their wonderful mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cat Town, USA is a feel-good documentary of people and cats living their best lives, existing in a cut-filled bubble. It\u2019s a beautiful lightness, a purr-fect pitstop of lightness and love. Cat lovers, make a visit to Cat Town, USA (and support the Jenkins\u2019 or your local cat charity of your choice).<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Cat Town, USA is presented through the Seattle International Film Festival, running in-person screenings May 15th \u2013 25th and selected online screenings March 26th \u2013 June 1st. See <\/b>Siff.net\/festival<\/b><\/a>\u00a0for more.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bruce and Terry Jenkins run a unique sanctuary for elder cats in Jonathan Napolitano\u2019s cozy documentary Cat Town, USA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1284],"tags":[292,356,3700],"class_list":["post-47856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-festivalsevents","tag-documentary","tag-film-festival","tag-siff2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47860,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47856\/revisions\/47860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}