Rats

Having received acclaim at international festivals, D.C. filmmaker James M. Felter's RATS triumphantly scurries back to the nest from which it emerged. 

Appropriately Felter has taken his camera to Willard Street NW for his feature-length documentary about the rodents that, depending on which source you believe, outnumber the District's human residents by a margin of as many as 14 to one.

Felter mixes images of the furry critters with interviews of people whose lives are affected: neighbors (a man on a nightly firearm patrol, a bickering gay couple), trashmen, exterminators, and representatives of civil, animal-rights groups. Caught off-guard, then mayor Marion Barry exhibits his verminous indifference to the city's rat problem. We're offered brief glimpses of omnivores Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp. But the most eloquent subjects are the homeless scavengers and drug addicts forced to compete with the rodents for sustenance. Deferring to its sponsors, who include the mayor's media-development office and the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Filmfest's program notes assert that the film explores "the joys and challenges of contemporary D.C. living."

If Felter's camera captures any joys, I failed to see them. Just when you think you've overdosed on rodentiana, RATS concludes with a brilliant coup de cinemaoa shot that opens with the July 4th Mall fireworks display, and then pans across the city's rooftops to the end in an alleyway crawling with vermin.

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