Product Details

• Actors: Karen OToole, Gloria Richardson, Malvin Cavalier, Jesse Pullins, Randy Turner
• Directors: Geralyn Pezanoski
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Film Movement
• DVD Release Date: May 4, 2010
• Run Time: 81 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002NRNZTG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,102 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Mine" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

MINE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving and eye-opening film and a special experience., April 9, 2010

By 

Sheri in Reho (Rehoboth Beach, DE) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mine (DVD)

Mine is a documentary focused on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in relation to the pets left behind when people evacuated and were not permitted to bring their pets along on buses, to shelters, etc.

The first part is the immediate aftermath of the storm, when pet rescue organizations were coming into New Orleans and pulling animals out of abandoned houses. It is, of course, heartbreaking to see animals in distress. Some of those animals spent a long time alone on a roof or locked up in a house before they were rescued--some were emaciated, filthy, bug-ridden--but it is so wonderful to see them being rescued by people who truly care.

Next, the film discusses how the pets were distributed to shelters all around the country (quite amazing to see how many people and how many states were involved in this process). There was no system set up at the time for people to find their pets when they returned home; eventually, there was a system created but many of the pet owners didn't know about it or find out about it until a year or more later.

The last part of the film focuses on the frustrating and highly emotional situation that resulted when pets were adopted out to new homes and then the original owners finally found out how to find their dog...and the new owners often didn't want to return the pets. There were no laws at the time to handle this situation. The film focus on 4 or 5 families trying to find their dogs.

It is not as weepy as you might think, but it certainly is touching, especially those stories of the original owners who have finally found where their beloved pets are after 1-3 years only to learn that the new owners don't want to give them back. It was that part of the film that had me weeping, though I was very touched by all of the film.

As a dog owner, when I hear of a friend's dog dying or see/hear of any kind of pet trauma, there is always a part of my mind that is thinking "What if it were me? How would I feel if that was my dog?" This has never been more true than while I was watching Mine. The thought of being evacuated and not being allowed to take Missy, my Shih Tzu and best friend, was traumatizing enough...and then the thought of not being able to find her afterwards, or finding her and the people who had her not wanting to give her back...it was just too much to process. My heart ACHED for the people in the film who were going through this very thing.

I saw Mine as part of a small screening room audience vs. in a large theatre, and I'm very happy to have had that experience. It gave people in the audience the freedom to react vocally to what was going on in the film (and perhaps the freedom to cry more freely) and that made it even more of an intimate, special experience.

A lot of people tend to want to avoid seeing things that are difficult or emotional to watch. I urge you not to turn away from this, but to embrace it. It is through films like this that we learn...we find out what is wrong and perhaps help fix it. Mine tells a very important story...and it's important that we listen.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Of people and pets., April 13, 2010

By 

Chris Swanson "I'm just this guy, you know?" (Phoenix) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mine (DVD)

(special thanks to Film Movement for providing me with a screener)

What makes us different from the beasts of the field? How are we not like other animals?

There's lots of ways, really. We've mastered fire, invented the internet and, sadly, brought Michael Bay into the universe. We're also unique among every other species that we know of in that we keep pets.

I've never been much of a dog person. I seem to remember my parents had a large dog when I was a toddler, but after they got divorced we just had cats. I loved the cats we had, especially Joey and Victoria who were with me from the age of about 8 until they died in the mid-1990's. Since then I haven't owned any pets (well, a few tropical fish). This hasn't been because I didn't want to, but because I've lived in places where I couldn't. So having owned pets and loved them dearly I do get at least something of a feeling for where the people in this movie are coming from.

The movie is a documentary telling the stories of various survivors of Hurricane Katrina and their efforts to get back their pets (all dogs, sadly. More dogs were rescued than cats. Why? Dogs bark). These pets have been scattered across the nation and while some are located quickly many are not, and several of them have been placed with new families that love them and don't want to give them back.

This was a fascinating film. There's no bad guys here. Everyone involved loves the animals in question and thinks they are doing the right thing by keeping them or by trying to get them back. I felt for everyone here, from the beleaguered shelter owner who was trying her best to the 86 year old man who wanted his beloved poodle back. Everyone was doing what they thought was right.

This is a truly excellent film, easily one of the best documentaries I've seen in a while. I was deeply moved. I highly recommend this movie.

Included with the film are an unusually large number of extras. I'm accustomed to Film Movement being somewhat niggardly with their features (usually just a trailer and some ads for other movies), but they hit it out of the ball park on this DVD. One caution: DO NOT check out the list of extras before you see the movie, since the titles give away several key features about the "plot" of the film.

=== Short Subject ===

This month's short film is "La vie d'un chien", or "The Life of a Dog". Sadly, much as I really enjoyed "Mine", this movie does not begin to measure up.

First off, despite it being what one might call a movie, there's only about two seconds of actual movement. Everything else is told in a series of rather pretentious black and white still photos showing what's allegedly Paris in the early 1960's. The entire movie is in French, which seems odd given that it's an American production.

The story centers around a scientist who develops a drug that enables people to turn into dogs. Of course the government cannot allow this, as the film says, because it enables people to experience actual freedom. Or whatever. Mostly it enables them to run around barking and having sex with other dogs, both actual and "human".

Really there's nothing good to say about this film. It was bad from the first still photo to the last. Pretentious, unrealistic nonsense that's not worthy of being on this disc. So bad is it that normally I'd have docked the disc a star for having it, but since the feature film is so strong, it keeps all five stars.

5.0 out of 5 stars New perspective on Katrina tragedy, June 9, 2011

By 

Alex (Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mine (Amazon Instant Video)

Before seeing this documentary, I never would have thought about this story of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. Mine showed me a side of the disaster I had never heard about - I knew that many people in New Orleans lost their pets during the hurricane but not what happened afterwards. Geralyn Pezanoski, the director, follows the stories of the owners of animals that were rescued in New Orleans and then sent to shelters and adopted around the country. As they come back to the destruction of their homes, they can't find their beloved pets and are forced to go on a frustrating and emotional legal hunt to get them back.

The film focuses on the recovery of dogs and, although I am a stalwart cat fan, I too became attached to the search and painfully waited to see if the people's dogs would be returned. It was a really touching movie and I absolutely had to fight back tears several times in the face of such national and personal tragedy. The people of New Orleans in this film were so miserably attached to their pets, and it's easy to see why when you remember that animals do often become part of the family. Although it can seem silly to think of focusing on animals when so many bigger things were lost in Katrina, Pezanoski makes you understand why animals are so important: they are objects of hope. It is like if the people could only get their pets back, everything else would be recovered, restored, and better. I loved this movie.