“Bonus,” a film about an adopted shepherd mix who “wasn’t perfect,” won the audience choice award at the inaugural Doggie Shorts: A Furry Film Festival at the Loft Cinema on Saturday.
Five locally produced films were selected to be shown at the event, which benefited Handi-Dogs Inc., a Tucson-based nonprofit that has helped people with disabilities gain independence and self-esteem by assisting them to train their own dogs to be their service, therapy or well-mannered pet dogs.
“I was very pleased and thrilled particularly because it was a sold-out crowd,” said William Hoffacker, who received a year’s pass to the Loft Cinema for the win. “To know that many people saw my work and liked it and voted for it was very validating.”
His nearly 4-minute film tells the story of Kim Stoll and the dog she adopted several years ago from the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.
“I thought it was a fabulous film,” said JoAnn Turnbull, Handi-Dogs president. “It really told a beautiful story about a rescue dog who needed extra help — and a loving, responsible person who took care of their dog.”
Hoffacker, an administrative assistant at Arizona Public Media, went to college with Stoll and the two have been friends six or seven years. Both are active in animal rescue. When they heard about the new shorts festival from a Bridge Rescue for Dogs volunteer they decided to make a film. She wrote about her experience with Bonus, while Hoffacker shot footage at her home.
Stoll, who has since adopted two other dogs, said Bonus was initially severely under socialized and easily overwhelmed. In addition, what Stoll was told was mild hip dysplasia was actually severe. “The options were expensive. I remember being sort of angry at the shelter, thinking, how could they have called this mild? I felt duped, but he was my dog now,” she says in the film.
Stoll started a GoFundMe campaign, hoping to raise $1,800 for his surgery. She woke the next morning to find the fund had already raised $1,985 — mostly from her peers — grad students and people right out of college.
While the first few weeks after the surgery were agonizing — Bonus was scared, in pain and reluctant to walk in a sling — the film shows him more recently navigating an agility course.
“People give up on dogs all of the time,” Stoll says in the voiceover at the end of the film. “They treat them like appliances, like something returnable for a refund when there should be commitment and accountability, hard work and patience. You get a dog you figure out how to care for it and it changes your life.”
Hoffacker said he was interested in taking part in next year’s festival, in addition to First Friday Shorts, the Loft Cinema’s monthly film contest.
“There’s no shortage of great stories and great people willing to tell those stories,” he said.
