Made possible by a nationwide ‘no kill, no capture’ law protecting stray animals, Turkey’s stray dogs live in a sort of semi-harmony with people, their parallel societies often peaceably overlapping and intertwining. This is most pronounced in Istanbul, where government and community organisations have developed a sophisticated infrastructure for humane treatment of the city’s hundreds of thousands of street dogs. Their freewheeling lives were the subject of Stray (2020), a critically acclaimed feature-length documentary by Elizabeth Lo, a Hong Kong-born filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Shot in coordination with Stray, this short documentary takes viewers to the other side of the country, where strays in the ancient city of Kars roam, fight and and are occasionally interrupted by their human neighbours. Following a group of dogs as they wander in and out of Muslim rituals at a nearby mosque – and occasionally bark alongside its calls to prayer – Lo’s observational short provides a unique view of the human and canine worlds alike.
Director: Elizabeth Lo
Producer: Shane Boris
Co-producers: Ceylan Carhoglu, Zeynep Koprulu
Associate producer: Zeynep Aslanoba
Executive producer: Ina Fichman
Sound designer: Ernst Karel
Composer: Ali Helnwein
Colorist: Robert Arnold
video
Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes
video
Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
5 minutes
video
Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
15 minutes
video
Virtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
16 minutes
video
History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes
video
Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
video
Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
14 minutes
video
Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes