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Seeing Myself Through a Cat's Eyes

2017-05-10 · review / recommendation · Hank · 3:27 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Pop culture (also: Projects) · mode: Advice & reviews · tags: timely hook

In a bonus Wednesday video, Hank argues that documentaries lack a place in our busy, distracted media life and announces that YouTube Red's documentary Kedi, about Istanbul's street cats, is available on the Vlogbrothers channel; he recommends it as a film that, like cats, asks us to slow down and just exist.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Wednesday greeting: Hank notes this is not how the schedule works

  • ★ Hank remarks that he is making a Wednesday video, which is not how this works, and that it is going to get weirder. (playful) — 00:00:03

00:00:05 — Documentaries are valuable but slow, and have no good place among our busy, distracting media

  • ★★ Hank says he and John love documentaries but thinks they have a problem: we are busy with work and with the distractions of the computer. (hedged) — 00:00:05
  • ★★ Hank says crises loom everywhere and quick cute or funny content is always at hand, while documentaries are long and more slowly paced than most media today. — 00:00:20
  • ★★★ Hank says documentaries, even if they don't feel efficient, are one of the most effective tools for insight into our humanity and the lives of other people and animals. — 00:00:45
  • ★★★ Hank says documentary film is fantastic, but more and more he feels there is no good place or time for it. (hedged) — 00:00:52

00:00:59 — YouTube Red's plan: Kedi on the Vlogbrothers channel for YouTube Red subscribers; availability and cost

  • ★★★ Hank says YouTube Red came to the brothers having acquired an award-winning documentary it wanted to make available to YouTube Red subscribers. — 00:01:02 · YouTube
  • ★★ Since YouTube cannot create a channel per documentary, YouTube Red asked the brothers to watch the film, which they did and both loved, and if they liked it to talk about it and upload it on the Vlogbrothers channel. — 00:01:11 · YouTube, Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank acknowledges not everyone has or can get YouTube Red: there is a free trial, but it is only in some countries and costs 10 dollars a month. — 00:01:29 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank says the film is now, or will very shortly be, available on the Vlogbrothers channel for subscribers. — 00:01:42 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank says the film is really good and has about 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. (hedged) — 00:01:48

00:01:54 — Kedi: Istanbul's street cats, cats as a lesson to slow down and exist, the filmmakers and Ceyda Torun's point; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank says the film is about street cats in Istanbul, which are cared for by the city's humans but not owned by any one person. — 00:01:54
  • ★ Hank says he is a cat person and finds something magical about cats. — 00:02:06
  • ★★★ Hank says Kedi fittingly asks us to slow down and be okay spending time watching pretty pictures and stories about the cats' lives. — 00:02:10
  • ★★ Hank says cats' great service is getting in your way, demanding chin scratches instead of computer staring, and so showing by example that it's okay sometimes to just exist. (playful) — 00:02:25
  • ★★ Hank says the film, which Variety called 'quietly magical', asks us to just exist for a little while. — 00:02:42
  • ★★ Hank talked with the film's makers, Ceyda Torun and Charlie Wuppermann. — 00:02:50
  • ★★★ Ceyda Torun (quoted): Ceyda Torun told Hank that the people-cat relationship is one of the only relationships with another species that people don't dominate: cats live with people of their own accord. — 00:02:58
  • ★★★ Hank says looking at himself through a cat's eyes gives a perspective hard to find otherwise, one the movie discovers and shares well. (hedged) — 00:03:08
  • ★★★ Hank hopes everyone who can will join him in watching the film. (hedged) — 00:03:20

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description says viewers where YouTube Red isn't available will probably get a one-time purchase option. (hedged) — video description · YouTube
  • ★★ The description says documentary film at its best is entirely about finding ways to understand the world more complexly, and is right in the brothers' wheelhouse. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: cat · documentary film · Kedi

Also: Ceyda Torun · Istanbul · Rotten Tomatoes · Variety · YouTube · YouTube Red

Only in the description or credits: Charlie Wuppermann

Also centred on cat: Cats are Better than Dogs, I Proved It. (PG-13)

Also centred on documentary film: The Introducer, My Childhood Dream Job

Also centred on Kedi: The Introducer, My Childhood Dream Job

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