• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Read An Issue
  • About
  • Advertising Information
  • Where to Find the Reader
  • Subscribe to our Mailing List
  • Contact Us

Park Slope Reader

  • The Reader Interview
  • Eat Local
  • Dispatches From Babyville
  • Park Slope Life
  • Reader Profile
  • Slope Survey

dogs in Park Slope

We Don’t Deserve Dogs: Park Slope Documentary Filmmakers Connecting The World

October 5, 2021 By Sofia Pipolo Filed Under: Park Slope Life, The Arts Tagged With: Art, dogs, dogs in Park Slope, film, Park Slope

What connects us? What makes us different? What’s it like being a shepherd in the isolated mountains of Romania? Or an evening with a dog walker under the streetlights of Istanbul? And how does listening to these stories help us grow together?

From Park Slope filmmakers Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker the new documentary We Don’t Deserve Dogs travels around the world beautifully capturing the lives of everyday individuals and their dogs. While we may never truly know what we did to deserve the unconditional love of our four-legged friends, there are sure to be life lessons in this special relationship.

The filmmaking duo of Urtext Films began their career in their home city of Adalene, Australia; and soon began developing and perfecting their own DIY hands-on way of documentary filmmaking. “When we started doing the documentary work we realized how much we could achieve just the two of us,” reflects Producer Rose Tucker. During production, Rose also manages Sound Recordist, while Matt takes the role of Director and Cinematographer. Together they’ve traveled the world intimately capturing the daily lives of individuals you may not normally see on screen. With just the two of them and sometimes a local translator as the crew, Matt and Rose are able to create a non-disruptive and personal filming experience, which reflects greatly in their work. The small, quiet details as incense smoke fill a prayer space. The rhythmic jingles of a dog’s collar tag. The friendly looks between patrons at a local pub. These natural moments make Matt and Rose’s first-person filmmaking style that much more mesmerizing, unique, and maybe a bit familiar.

Familiarity is always a starting point for Matt and Rose. Subjects that people are passionate about, things that get people talking. Their previous award-winning feature film, Barbecue (2017) covered BBQ culture across the planet. By capturing how everyday things manifest they can explore contrasts in cultures, while simultaneously connecting the things humans have in common. “It’s important to me because I come from a mixed-race background, so I’m always questioning what comes from each side,” says Director Matt Salleh. “We live in a seemingly very fractured world, and post-pandemic even more fractured. We can give insight and show commonalities in people’s lives while celebrating our unique differences.”

Of course, Park Slope is no stranger to the connective joy between fellow dog lovers. “One of the inspirations for this film is just looking out our window in Park Slope,” Rose remembers. “There are always people walking their dogs. People having relationships with each other based on their pets, visiting each other, and going to Prospect Park together.”

Filming for We Don’t Deserve Dogs took our fellow Park Slopers around the world. Traveling to 11 different countries in 9 months finding remarkable stories that would normally go untold. From Italy, Turkey, Uganda, Pakistan, Chile, Finland, Romania, Peru, Vietnam, Nepal, and Scotland; featuring 10 different languages, including some rarely seen on screen like the Acholi/

Lou language of Northern Uganda. “I think traveling when making a film is so different than traveling for tourism because you get that insight into what real life is like for people. You travel to neighborhoods you wouldn’t normally go to,” says Rose, who coordinated their travels and connections in each country.

By working with locals as tour guides, translators, and researchers they successfully sought out interview subjects and narratives. These tour guides, dubbed ‘fixers’ came from all walks of life. Some journalists, photographers, or students, all people who were embedded in the local community in some way and offered a bridge into that specific culture. For example, Matt tells about working with a female street performer in Santiago, Chile. “She created these street tours that took us to hidden parts of the city. She knew the lesser popularised history, like LGBTQ history, which meant she had to talk to people, understand the culture and people’s stories.”

Spending about 2 weeks in every country, the duo worked tirelessly, on foot, by car, and even on motorbike to capture the immersive terrains, complex soundscapes, and individual narratives. They didn’t seek to create the cliché cutesy dog film, nor interview celebrities or the boldest of personalities, but rather everyday individuals and their canine companions. Whether energetic or melancholy, spiritual or quirky, We Don’t Deserve Dogs shifts with each location’s distinct rhythms and pace of life. In Miraflores, Peru, you’ll meet young women throwing birthday parties for their adopted dogs. In Turku, Finland, support dogs for the elderly and disabled bring needed joy and cheer. In Gulu, Uganda, former child soldiers help rehabilitate street dogs as a form of trauma therapy. While directing Matt trusted subjects to share their experiences in their own voice and view. “We are not a voice-over saying what people should think about other people’s lives, we just want to show people’s lives as they are.”

While Matt and Rose feel privileged and bless to have their nomadic filmmaking lives, they have continued to find comfort in returning to Park Slope. A place that again brings together community and familiarity within the much larger New York City setting. Having immigrated to the United States four years ago, Rose expresses her appreciation, “We are lucky to have landed in Park Slope. We joke that we are more connected with our neighbors here than we were in a smaller city back in Australia. It’s a different kind of community living. In Australia everyone is in their house or in a car, here everyone is walking, sitting outside, everyone knows their neighbors and knows who works at the shops.” This aspect has also influenced the couple creatively. Not only reflecting on the immigrant experience, but the ability to find affinity, support, and friendship through genuine connection with those around us.

So here in their one-bedroom apartment, the editing process commenced for 3 months; reviewing hundred of translated transcripts, determining detailed story structure, meticulous color grading, and adding the beautiful score by composer Blake Ewing. Matt and Rose emerged from the editing cave in February 2020 (unfortunately only to return a month later for quarantine), and We Don’t Deserve Dogs made its virtual world premiere at South by Southwest 2020 Film Festival. The film is now digitally available for everyone to enjoy.

And it’s the perfect film for Park Slopers. Yes, of course, because of the dogs; but equally the showcasing of different cultures, religions, genders, and generations. “I think people in Brooklyn have a strong interest and deep respect for other cultures and want to know what’s happening around the world,” says Rose. “We made a very intentional decision to not film stories in Western countries like the U.S. or Australia. All of the stories are coming from lesser-known places. And I think people in Park Slope would be very interested in seeing for example what the relationship between a Muslim woman and her dog in Karachi [Pakistan] is like, and how that can relate to their own experience back here.”

There are no doubt commonalities seen right here in the melting pot that is Brooklyn. Every corner has a little – or more likely a lot – of history, culture, and influence from around the world. Matt expressed, “I don’t think Brooklyn would function in the way it does without all these different cultures coming together.” Matt and Rose even express how that if they find a food dish they love while traveling they have good faith in Brooklyn’s diversity they’ll be able to get it when they return home. “In filmmaking, we have this love and opportunity to travel and meet people from dozens of cultures, and they are all also right here in Brooklyn.”

If there is something special to be said about our ability to come together and blend cultures in our neighborhood, there is equally something to be said about how we can distinctly set each other apart. “We always start our films off with this positive hypothesis that there’s more good in the world than bad. Over and over again we meet people who prove that and amaze us with their stories. Their courage, their bravery, their insight into the world, how they preserve their history, how they celebrate their cultures,” Matt says when reflecting on what he hopes people will get out of the film. “So the fact our film is just listening to people talk about their lives, where they come from, and what is important in their culture, I think it’s a good first step to greater cultural understanding.”

In documenting these genuine stories, valuable kinships, and heartfelt moments from around the world, Matt and Rose’s film We Don’t Deserve Dogs follows the thread that connects us to the humanity, companionship, and unconditional love we may have with dogs and with each other.

Visit wedontdeservedogs.com to watch

Follow @urtext

Filed Under: Park Slope Life, The Arts Tagged With: Art, dogs, dogs in Park Slope, film, Park Slope

To Get A Dog Or Not To Get A Dog

January 28, 2016 By Sally Kohn Filed Under: Sally Kohn Tagged With: dog walkers, dogs, dogs in Park Slope, Prospect Park

One thing leads to another

Building a more perfect Park Slope!

I’ve written my first two columns for the Park Slope Reader about whether to get a family dog and, if so, what dog to get.  Suffice it to say that we don’t have a dog yet, but I believe it may happen any day now.  Which led me to start thinking about things like dog beds and dog walkers and the general dog infrastructure of Park Slope.

And then I realized what’s missing—Why aren’t there any dog runs besides Prospect Park?  Am I missing something?  Is this just one of those things you don’t notice until you have a dog, sort of like how I didn’t notice kid’s menus until I had a kid?  Or are there unofficial, underground dog runs about which only the chosen few in the neighborhood know?

I’m not saying dog runs are great things—I remember when I lived in Manhattan thinking they were dusty, smelly wastes of otherwise-nice park land.  But I suspect if/when I have a dog, on those days when I just don’t feel like slogging up to the park or can’t get there in time for off leash hour, it would be nice to have a place to let the dog run a little closer to home.

And this, in turn, led me to thinking about other things our neighborhood lacks.  Let me be clear, I love Park Slope.  If I were the tattoo-getting type, I’d have 11217 written somewhere on my left bicep below “Sarah Forever” and above a portrait of Cher.  So I think Park Slope is damn near perfect.  But what might make it even more perfect, beyond the obvious things like more affordable housing stock and racial and economic integration in public schools and social spaces?  Here is a rough list of ideas:

• A co-working space.  Or maybe a co-working café, where you could buy a day pass and nab a desk and not feel guilty because you’ve only drank one cappuccino.  There are so many transient hipster creatives working “at home” crammed into the current stock of Park Slope coffee shops, I can’t believe someone hasn’t created this.

• A coffee shop with a kid play and programming space.  There are things like this in Manhattan, where moms and dads can grab a drink and a snack while the kids take in a puppet show or something.  Again, there are so many parents with young kids crammed along side the hipsters trying to get their work done, I don’t know why this doesn’t exist either.

• More mimes.  Silent but entertaining.

• More places with prepared foods.  There’s the BKLYN Larder, which I love, and at the other end of the slope, Gather, which is also great.  But what about when I’m feeling really lazy and only want to walk one or two blocks to get a dinner somebody else pseudo-home cooked?

• A place that opens early for brunch.  I love you, Dizzy’s and Cousin John’s, but I mean a more fancy brunch establishment that caters to the fact that my child us awake and hungry at 8:00 a.m.

• Participatory budgeting where community residents get to prioritize how city money is spent.  Oh wait, we already have that in Park Slope!  Thank you, City Councilman Brad Lander!

• All the chains to go away.  You can get your books for the same price at the Community Bookstore instead of Barnes & Noble.  You can get your coffee at Grumpy or Gorilla for less than Starbucks.  Local businesses are what make a community unique.  Plus when we spend money in local Park Slope-owned businesses, that money stays in and strengthens Park Slope.

• Bike racks on residential blocks.  I would love to park my bike on the street but my neighbors aren’t so keen on the aesthetics of my bike locked to our front gate.  Want to encourage more biking?  Put up more bike racks, everywhere.  And some Citibike stations would be awesome, too.

That’s just a quick list.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Except about mimes.  Please don’t send or post your thoughts about mimes.  They’re very divisive, I’ve learned.

Filed Under: Sally Kohn Tagged With: dog walkers, dogs, dogs in Park Slope, Prospect Park

Primary Sidebar

The Spring 2025 Issue is now available

The Reader Community

READER CONTRIBUTORS

Copyright © 2025 · Park Slope Reader