Kaitlyn Schwalje & Alex Wolf Lewis | USA | 2020
13 min | CC Available

Every November, co-Directors Alex Wolf Lewis and Kaitlyn Schwalje celebrate Thanksgiving at Alex’s Aunt and Uncle’s house just outside of Philadelphia. And every November, they marvel at the fact that the family’s 4-inch-long pet turtle, Snowy, is still alive. Living in isolation, Snowy resides in the family basement with minimal sunlight and no companionship other than that of his primary caretaker, Uncle Larry. In an effort to improve Snowy’s life we ask: Is Snowy happy? And is Snowy even capable of experiencing happiness? This film is both an investigation into animal happiness and an intervention to improve one turtle’s life.

We assembled a team of experts in an effort to better understand Snowy’s lived experience. We traveled to an animal psychic in Jersey City, then to Snowy’s veterinarian and finally across the Atlantic Ocean to England to meet a leading expert in reptile cognition. Uncle Larry admits, “It is a turtle and we’re all pretending to know what the turtle’s thinking.” “But,” he continues, “that’s what makes it fun.” The effort to know the unknowable, specifically the minds of those around us, the animals and the people, is a worthy effort on any scale.

DIRECTORS BIO

Kaitlyn Schwalje 

Kaitlyn Schwalje is a science journalist and documentary director based in Portland, Maine. She received a B.S. in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University and completed her postgraduate studies at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. Before pivoting to storytelling, Kaitlyn worked for the research division of the Walt Disney Company. Her stories about her disaster obsessed father, tsunamis, and city squirrels appear in CBC, Atlas Obscura, WNYC, 99% Invisible, Nat Geo, and others. 

Alex Wolf Lewis

Alex Wolf Lewis is a director and DP based in New York City and Portland, Maine. As a director, credits include, Snowy (Sundance 2021), Single Room Occupancy (SIFF 2016, Big Sky 2017, Short of The Week) and Hildegarde’s Piano (Rooftop Film Festival 2019). As a DP, he has travelled the world for work, shooting for Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Vice, Netflix, HBO, CNN, PBS, A&E, Discovery, Well Groomed (HBO Sports, SXSW 2019, Hot Docs 2019) and 2nd Unit DP on the narrative feature Critical Thinking, dir. John Leguizamo, (SXSW 2020).