FIPRESCI Prize Winner ‘Chatty Catties’ Picked Up By Smarthouse Creative

Smarthouse Creative’s new distribution arm has acquired “Chatty Catties,” the debut feature from Pablo Valencia that won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival. 

The dark comedy, produced by Cecilia Curran and co-written by Valencia and Dicky Bahto, features the voice talents of a cast of deaf and hearing-impaired actors led by John Autry II, a graduate of No Limits, the country’s only theater group for deaf and hard-of-hearing youth. Autry voices the sassy tabby Leonard, who is at odds with his human roommate Shelby (Megan Hensley), whose own emotional problems limit her abilities to provide for the most basic of Leonard’s needs. But when she begins a relationship with kind-hearted musician (Matthew Grathwol), Leonard sees a brighter future for both him and his owner, but it won’t come without a few emotional fireworks along the way.