Rat Stories. Yes, really.

On Saturday, January 8, at 7 P.M. (re-broadcast on Sunday, January 9 at 11 PM), WSBE Rhode Island PBS presents Rat Stories, an unconventional documentary by filmmaker Holly Hey. Holly received a mini-grant for the film from the RI Council for the Humanities. Rat Stories will be shown as part of Rhode Island Stories, the WSBE Rhode Island PBS ongoing series that features stories about the people and places in Rhode Island.

This is Holly Hey's statement, edited from the film's Web site:

Rat Stories is an experimental documentary that circumvents conventional documentary form. With the absence of an omniscient narrator, viewers are asked to be active thinkers, to realize the stories’ connections on their own, and to intellectually, emotionally, and critically reflect on some of the embedded cultural belief systems that pervade our everyday lives. While each story has its own distinct visual presence and structure, all the stories are united by common themes. Like the rat is scorned within many cultures around the world, the subjects within this film do not fit into the mainstream and create their own fringe cultures in order to belong. Rat Stories' often misunderstood and reviled subject matter - the rat - reminds its audience about the importance of human connection.

Holly Hey is an independent filmmaker and an experimental weaver of media who strives to provoke active relationships between her cinematic art and the diverse audiences that it reaches. Her work employs a wide range of practice including:

(1.) Single Channel Work that is projected within film festivals, micro-cinemas, and on public broadcast stations, 
(2.) Mixed-Media and Installation Art that is shown within galleries and museums, and 
(3.) Live Performance and Multi-Media Integration within Performance Art, and the performing arts like theatre and music. 

No single practice is more important to her than another; each practice is a unique opportunity to intersect or to undermine conventional methods for telling stories via the moving image.

Holly holds a MFA in filmmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in photography from Ohio University. She is currently an assistant professor of film and video production within the Department of Theatre and Film at The University of Toledo. 

Source: ratstoriesmovie.com