I Talk to Animals (1990)

• 70%
• 1990
• Peter Friedman

This documentary is a portrait of an "animal therapist and psychic" who has convinced skeptical pet owners, zoo keepers, and race horse trainers that she really can "talk" to their animals. We see her at work counseling race horses in need of leisure time, depressed cats, and misguided ants. We hear from owners and trainers who describe how their animals' behaviors changed following her sessions, and how she told them things about the animals that she "could not have known"--unless the animals told her themselves. The High Museum of Art in Atlanta said this, "Witty and understated, this film hardly seems the sort of documentary one would call subversive. . .but if we accept the essence of Friedman's work, it's not merely subversive but revolutionary, for it tests the very foundations of our experience of consciousness and our relationship with the natural world.