In May 2025, Spectacle and The Film-Makers’ Cooperative joined forces to revive INTERCAT: The International Festival of Cat Films, founded by Pola Chapelle in 1969. This month, we’re ecs-cat-ic to present a new lineup of feline films for INTERCAT 2026!
THURSDAY, JUNE 18 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 21 – 5:00PM
Chapelle (known, according to a 1976 Boston Globe article, as “The Cat Woman”) was one of the founding members of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative. Her husband was filmmaker Adolfas Mekas, director of the acclaimed experimental feature HALLELUJAH FOR THE HILLS (1963) and the brother of Jonas Mekas, once the Coop’s de facto leader. Chapelle was a talented filmmaker, actor, and singer whose accomplishments are often overlooked in the history of American avant-garde cinema. INTERCAT remains one of her most endearing and prophetic creations, forecasting the virality and ubiquity of cat-related audiovisual media in the digital age.
This year’s festival offers an exciting new lineup of twenty cat films spanning from the 1950s to the 2020s. Chapelle’s own HOW TO DRAW A CAT (1973), which P. Adams Sitney once noted was “the only cat film I’ve seen twice,” returns from last year’s program. The 2025 fest also included two Stan Brakhage titles: NIGHTCATS (1958) and MAX (2003). We are pleased to present three more Brakhage cat films in this year’s lineup: 1959’s CAT’S CRADLE, 1966’s PASHT, and 1997’s CAT OF THE WORM’S GREEN REALM. Two films from INTECATs in decades past are also making their return: Abott Meader’s CATWALK (1972) and Standish Lawder’s CATFILM FOR KATY AND CYNNIE (1974).
Many films in this program are sourced from the Coop’s 16mm and digital collection, including Saul Levine’s NOTE TO ERIK (1968), Ken Jacobs’ NISSAN ARIANA WINDOW (1969), Peter Von Ziegesar’s CATS-SNOW-MAGIC (1975) and EMMA (1976), and Martha Colburn’s CATS AMORE (2000). We also sourced several films from the collections of fellow distributors and comrades-in-arms Canyon Cinema and Re:Voir Video, including Larry Jordan’s UNDERTOW (1955), Gary Weis’ TAYLOR MEAD’S CAT (1975), and Jay Rosenblatt’s NINE LIVES (THE ETERNAL MOMENT OF NOW) (2001). Moreover, we are excited to welcome recent cat films by friends-of-Spectacle Maximilien Luc Proctor, Bradley Eros, and Lily Sarosi into the INTERCAT canon alongside feline flicks by Guy Sherwin and Jim Jennings.
The films in this year’s program careen from the outdoor to the domestic, the erotic to the oneiric, elucidating the many facets of our feline friends and the breadth and depth of their filmic lineage. Join us on June 18th and 21st for a purrrfect time at the movies.
Special thanks to Robert Schneider, Pip Chodorov (Re:Voir), Zachary Epcar and Ashley Rose Tacheira (Canyon Cinema), Martha Colburn, Bradley Eros and Qianqi Zhang, Abbott and Nancy Meader, Bruce Williams, Maximilien Luc Proctor, Guy Sherwin, and Peter Von Ziegesar.
HOW TO DRAW A CAT
Dir. Pola Chapelle, 1973.
United States. 3 min. 16mm.
CATFILM FOR KATY AND CYNNIE
Dir. Standish Lawder, 1973.
United States, 3 min. 16mm.
CAT OF THE WORM’S GREEN REALM
Dir. Stan Brakhage, 1997.
United States. 5 min. 16mm.
CATWALK
Dir. Abbott Meader, 1972.
United States. 5 min.
CAT ON TV
Dr. Guy Sherwin, 1977.
United Kingdom, 3 min.
TAYLOR MEAD’S CAT
Dir. Gary Weis. 1973.
United States. 5 min.
CLOSE QUARTERS
Dir. Jim Jennings, 2004.
United States. 9 min. 16mm.
EMMA
Dir. Peter Von Ziegesar, 1976.
United States. 6 min. 16mm.
CATS-SNOW-MAGIC
Dir. Peter Von Ziegesar, 1975.
United States. 6 min.
NOTE TO ERIK
Dir. Saul Levin, 1968.
United States. 4 min.
CAT
Dir. Guy Sherwin, 1998.
United Kingdom, 3 min.
UNDERTOW
Dir. Larry Jordan, 1955.
United States. 7 min. 16mm.
PASHT
Dir. Stan Brakhage, 1966.
United States. 5 min. 16mm.
NINE LIVES (THE ETERNAL MOMENT OF NOW)
Dir. Jay Rosenblatt, 2001.
United States, 1 min. 16mm.
NEKO
Dir. Maximilien Luc Proctor, 2021.
Germany. 5 min.
GEM
Dir. Lily Sarosi, 2026.
United States. 3 min.
CATS AMORE
Dir. Martha Colburn, 2000.
United States. 2 min.
CAT’S CRADLE
Dir. Stan Brakhage, 1959.
United States. 6 min. 16mm.
NISSAN ARIANA WINDOW
Dir. Ken Jacobs, 1969.
United States. 14 min. 16mm.
TRT: 95 min.