The SNF Parkway is excited to bring Theo Anthony’s Baltimore documentary RAT FILM back to the Parkway for a full run. A sell-out sensation at the 2017 Maryland Film Festival, we are excited to bring the film to Baltimore AND to feature THREE special panels during RAT FILM’s run.
Theo Anthony’s extraordinary Rat Film is many things at once. At its core, Anthony’s film uses the problem of rat infestation in Baltimore as a window into our city’s systemic history of segregation. Archival maps and photos illuminating redlining, poverty, and racism collide with striking images of Baltimore today, as we meet Baltimore residents who “fish” for rats in alleyways at night, and embed ourselves with a charismatic city worker who takes a philosophical approach to rat eradication.
From its first kinetic images of a panicked rat struggling to leap out of the trash bin in which it’s trapped, Rat Film offers an experience both cerebral and visceral. Drawing on the film-essay tools exemplified by Chris Marker and Harun Farocki and the augmented-truth approach to documentary found in Werner Herzog’s filmography, Anthony (who also shot and edited the film) has delivered a fully-formed, genre- defying piece that shines as a work of history, journalism, criticism, portraiture, and entertainment.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 7:15pm: Opening Weekend Celebration; featuring Q&A with director Theo Anthony
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 4:30PM: Student Night – Free admission with Student ID; featuring Q&A with director Theo Anthony
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 7:15pm: Rat People, Rat Problems – Urban Health, Baltimore City & Rat Film; A special panel featuring Professor Dawn Day Biehler, Graham Mooney, and other public health experts; moderated by director Theo Anthony