Elizabeth Lo: “Like the dogs, I existed in a limbo where I wasn’t entirely part of human society.”
Miscellaneous Files is a series of virtual studio visits that uses images, videos, and other fragments from writers’ digital devices to understand their practice. Conceived by Mary Wang, each interview provides an intimate look into the artistic process. This particular conversation was produced in partnership with Film Forum, which is proud to present New York City’s virtual cinema premiere of Stray. You can support this vital nonprofit cinema by renting the film here.
As a result of its no-kill and no-capture policy, the city of Istanbul has a large and vibrant stray dog population that lives alongside its human inhabitants, with whom they share food, shelter, and heavily trafficked streets. At first glance, Elizabeth Lo’s debut feature Stray is a documentary that follows these dogs through their everyday urban lives. But in tracking the dogs’ journeys, and especially through her close portrayal of the golden-haired mutt Zeytin, it becomes clear that Lo is also telling a story about the power of observation: What does the world really look like from a dog’s-eye-view? What do we miss by prioritizing the human perspective over that of the non-humans among us? Is a city populated with stray animals—alongside many displaced non-citizens—a place of cruelty, or can it suggest as an alternative model of care?
Lo, who served as s director, cinematographer, and editor, shot the documentary over several months between 2017 and 2019. The re-election of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a surging feminist movement, and an influx of refugees from Syria’s civil war form the backdrop to the dogs’ daily lives. In one instance, they lead Lo’s camera to a group of Syrian boys who also live on the streets. Rather than focusing on the boys’ lack of shelter and citizenship, Lo reveals an intimacy between these two groups that both lack formal status, but have managed tofits within her larger aim to tell stories that challenge both Eurocentric and human-centric ways of seeing the world.
