Moscow's Cat Theatre, Old Jews, and More Cinelan on SnagFilms

House cats are the white tigers of Russia. Vladimir and daughter Maria are the country’s Seigfried and Roy.

With over 30 years of experience in the feline training trade, Vladimir is the Creative Director for the Moscow Cats Theatre, a Russian-language mini-circus that showcases the stars’…err…cat-like reflexes through wondrous marvels of dexterity, all mixed with traces of classic Euro-clown comedy. It’s a festival of tricks, sights, and sounds to delight even the most passive reader of ICanHazCheesburger.

Thanks to Morgan Spurlock, here’s a look:

Last February, along with Ministry of Culture‘s David Art Wales and Arts Alliance’s Thomas Hoegh, the creative mind behind Supersize Me

launched Cinelan, a “filmmaker-driven, video publisher dedicated to delivering new audiences and ongoing revenues to documentary filmmakers through the worldwide syndication of professionally-produced, three-minute films.”

That means if you’re an documentarian with a compelling story that intrigues Cinelan’s team and advisory board, the organization will grant you a $2,500 advance against your three-minute masterpiece’s future earnings, and an additional 50% of all revenue your film achieves via the web or actual screenings in the real world.

That also means that ever since a distribution deal was cut between Cinelan and SnagFilms (which aims to be a one-stop online shop for viewing documentaries) we’re given the opportunity to watch little bits of wonderful like the Moscow Cats Theatre above, and The R.O.M.E.O.s and Kinda Sutra below.

Produced by Katy Chevigny of Media That Matters, The R.O.M.E.O.s (Retired Old Men Eating Out) captures a homogeneous bunch of upcoming octogenarians arguing the world and refraining from telling racial jokes on camera while sipping coffee and noshing pastramis on rye in a classic New York delicatessen. The conversation is compelling, but I think humans must have an innate response to act positively towards people older than they are yelling at one another. That kinda thing is always amusing.

If the creators of The Secret went to Bollywood and discussed procreation instead of inane pop psychology with a bunch of children and adults whose parents never read them Where Did I Come From, Kinda Sutra would be the three-minute trailer to their theatrical release. Directed by Jessica Yu, the animations evocative of Kama Sutra illustrations give life to stories of tadpoles, ovens, and seeds and paint brightly colored pictures of sexual misinformation that are always fun to laugh at.

If you liked any of the above (or hated the above but like the idea of watching professionally produced  three-minute documentaries), check out more shorts from Cinelan at Snagfilms.com.