Calling All Feline Lovers: ‘Cats Of Malta’ Documentary Celebrating Strays Is Coming Soon
A new family-friendly Maltese film documentary is coming to the island very soon, all about celebrating Malta’s stray cats.
The production was filmed during the peak of the global health crisis, aimed to give a voice to the island’s stray cats and shed light on cat culture.
Although Cats of Malta is a cat movie, it’s not just a film about Malta’s cats – it’s also about the power of community and the strength of the human-cat connection.
And what’s even more amazing, is that the documentary has already been selected for two international film festivals – the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival July 2022, and the New York Cat Film Festival in October 2022!
Lovin Malta spoke with the director and producer Sarah Jayne, to hear more about her vision for this documentary.
“Growing up in Australia and being raised by Maltese parents meant it was inevitable that I would one day visit the island where my family grew up. It was also impossible not to be interested in my heritage, or to even be able to ignore it,” she said.
“When I became a filmmaker later in life, I held onto my dream of one day spending some time in Malta and directing a film there. It’s one of the reasons I relocated to Malta in 2017, that and spending time with my grandma.”
While Cats of Malta is Jayne’s third feature film to direct in Malta, to her it’s the most special film because it became her love letter to Malta.
“There were only a few challenges while making Cats of Malta. Pandemic aside, my husband and I shot it with the help of two other local on-call crew members with no intention of making a film, to begin with.”
“Personally, the challenge for me was that it was my first documentary, so in a way, I was learning a different way to tell a story. It all came down to my connection and communication with the wonderful, charismatic and sometimes super funny locals we chose to interview.”
“I can say that I made friends with each of them. I call them my friends, as we went through something special together, and it shows in the final product,” she said.
Jayne also expressed her hopes of Cats of Malta being seen as much more than just a fun, entertaining and whimsical cat movie, because to her it’s so much more.
“I think that through the stories shown on the screen, both the human and the feline, the audience can learn a lot about compassion, the power of community, the importance of correct pet ownership, how these cats are cared for and what they give humans in return.”
“I’ve learnt so much about cats during this process and I’m glad that the Maltese stray cats and their community were so open to me doing this. Now they have their own film that not only has cats enticing visitors but also shows Malta truly as Malta.”
While working on the documentary, the filmmakers visited popular cat colonies, cat cafes and sanctuaries, talked to artists, and sourced stories from locals and business owners about their favourite felines.
They compiled all the heartfelt stories into a fun family-friendly documentary that will make audiences feel a rainbow of emotions.
Nexus Production Group is owned and run by prolific Australian filmmaking couple Ivan Malekin and Sarah Jayne Portelli, with Ivan credited as Cats of Malta’s producer/editor and Sarah Jayne as producer/director.
Individually, the filmmakers each have fifteen years of experience producing, writing and directing short and feature-length independent films in Europe and Australia, including Daughter (2016), Friends, Foes & Fireworks (2017), In Corpore (2020) Machination (2022),
Cats of Malta (2023) and No Woman is an Island (2023).
Are you excited to watch this documentary?
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