Cat City (2023*)/Dark Sanctuary: The Story Of The Church (2023/MVD/Cleopatra Blu-ray)/Tito, Margot and Me (2022/IndiePix DVD)/Trinity (2024*)/Without Arrows (2024/*all First Run DVDs)

Picture: B-/B-/B-/C/C Sound: B-/C+/C+/C+/C+ Extras: D/C+/C-/C+/D Main Programs: B/B-/B-/B-/B-

Up next are a good sampling of new documentary releases worth your time....

A beautiful award winning documentary on the 200,000 strong population of feral cats in Chicago, Ben Kolak's Cat City (2023) is a must watch for cat lovers. Now out on DVD from First Run Features, the film shows different perspectives on cats in the city. Some cats have lived strong lives and defied predators, with some determined folks going out of their way to feed and care for them. Others gripe that they eat the birds and it affects the bird population, whilst a community driven catch / neuter/ release practice brings a presence that is controversial to say the least.

No extras.

As a cat lover this film struck a cord with me personally as I have undying compassion for animals in general, but certainly cats. I can see the argument this documentary brings up and its surprising to me how some people can be so cruel as to neglect these animals. I feel like Cat City is a must watch for all cat owners as it does a good job of putting things into perspective on the feral cat issue and shows that we aren't so different from the felines themselves and that they deserve our respect.

Timothy Stevens' Dark Sanctuary: The Story Of The Church (2023) sounds like it might be about the famous and still-active Australian rock band who launched back in 1980, but instead, is about a goth club that managed to survive for three decades and in Dallas, Texas of all places. The name music artists involved and interviewed include Paul Oakenfold and members of Front 242, Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly. Then we get to meet the people behind the foundling of the club and a portrait of the area and scene.

Running just under 90 minutes, it is very thorough and has plenty of details, vintage pictures, interviews (old and new,) video and film clips. The result is once again seeing a history of music, art and living that everyone should be aware of and know about, yet has hardly been discussed or revealed. For those interested, it is worth your time and as we post, seems as remarkable an achievement as ever.

Extras include uncut celebrity interviews, an Original Theatrical Trailer and ''Solemn Assembly'' music video.

Mercedes Arias and Delfina Vidal Frago's Tito, Margot and Me (2022) is the tale of how old friends Roberto ''Tito'' Arias and dancer Margot Fonteyn landed up meeting again, falling in love and getting married almost two decades after originally knowing each other. Since she was popular and he was a major figure in politics in Panama, the combination became a cause celebre and I won't ruin anything by revealing what were some surprises and revelations in their time.

This release adds some new private material and insight since one of the co-directors is a relative, specifically a niece. That is what makes it watchable, though at the same time, I found some of the uses of video, editing and other tricks were repetitive and got in the way of the makers work by having them try too hard throughout in its 93 minutes run. If you want to know about the (in?)famous couple, this is as good a place as any to start.

A trailer is the only extra.

Martina Car and Anthony Audi's Trinity (2024) is about where the world's first nuclear bomb was set off, but instead of the tale Christopher Nolan tells so brilliantly in Oppenheimer (reviewed elsewhere on this site,) it tells it from the Native Americans who lived nearby, among others. The secret project may have saved the world from The Axis Powers, but it also hurt and even killed (in the long term) some of the people living around the area when they should have been sent elsewhere under some kind of other operation to protect them without anyone getting suspicious.

Running a very tight and loaded 76 minutes, it has rare, priceless tales, testimony and more about the events and plays as a compelling companion piece to other releases (documentary and dramatic) on the subject. How Native Americans responded to it (from the same community whose 'Windtalkers' helped save the world from the Axis Forces as well) is especially informative and we're lucky to have this to add to the list of key releases on the subject. Cheers to all involved.

Three bonus interview and extra footage sections are the extras.

Lats but not least is Elizabeth Day and Jonathan Olshefski's Without Arrows (2024,) focusing on the lives of Native Americans today and specifically, young Delwin Fiddler Jr., keeping his Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe culture alive while leaving his original home and moving to Philadelphia. Then while in that general world, makes further decisions that change and grow him and his life.

A very person biography and practical autobiography considering how much transparency he gave the co-directors, this can be pretty involving and gives us a portrait of persons we do not see or hear from enough, plus how Native American life continues today in the face of so much change, including some that is not good by any means. A brave work worth your time, I was glad I saw it.

There are sadly no extras.

Now for playback performance. The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Dark Sanctuary can show the age of the materials used in spots, usual low def and analog footage, plus some rough old film transfers, but the new footage of interviews and locations are fine. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 is disappointing and should have been a lossless format, but that is Cleopatra's usual approach, unfortunately. The combination is passable.

Cat City is presented in standard definition (480i) on DVD with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo audio mix. There are compression issues as is evident with the aging format, but the film is nicely edited and presented on this release all things considered.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the Tito, Trinity and Arrows DVDs include a good share of 1.33 X 1 footage, but as well as analog videotape flaws including video noise, video banding, telecine flicker, tape scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage also seen in the rest of the releases here. Trinity and Arrows are especially dependent on older, rougher video from now and then, so expect the most roughness in presentation, but that does not change their value, importance or rareness. All three also offer lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound with some monophonic sound in the mix, but there is plenty of Spanish language on Tito, so expect that mixed with English here and there.

- Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (Cat)

https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/