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I Talk to Animals

I Talk to Animals

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Samantha is an "animal therapist and psychic" who has convinced skeptical pet owners, zoo keepers, and race horse trainers that she really can "talk" to their animals. Here we see her at work counselling race horses in need of leisure time, "depressed "cats, and negotiating with naughty ants. And we hear from owners and trainers who describe how their animals' behavior changed following Samantha's sessions, and how she told them things about the animals that she "could not have known" — unless the animals told her themselves.

Linda Dubler, Curator of Film at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, says, "Witty and understated, Peter Friedman’s I TALK TO ANIMALS hardly seems the sort of documentary one would call subversive. But if we accept the essence of Friedman’s work, it is not merely subversive but revolutionary, for it tests the very foundations of our experience of consciousness and our relationship with the natural world. What begins as a quasi-comedy (What else would you call the saga of Casey, the depressed, unemployed cat?), deepens into an almost religious meditation on humankind’s vanity and isolation. Samantha Khury isn’t a specialist in myths or anthropology, and happily, Friedman trot out a crew of academicians who are. But her remarkable bond with animals harkens back to some very primal places, and her apparent communications carry with them an array of provocative questions. Khury’s talent is so patently eccentric that it can only strike us as funny at first. Friedman acknowledges the humor, but deflects it partially onto Samantha’s clients. You have to belief Frank though, the professional racehorse trainer. When he vouches for Khury’s abilities, you have to wonder what’s going on. After watching Friedman’s fine portrait she seems a genuine enigma — a mythic seer in the modern world."