A documentary that gets personal with the owners of two southern California pet burial grounds and a few of their clients. Filmed in the late ‘70s, when one such niche cemetery was closing up for good, _Gates of Heaven_ features a series of philosophically-inclined talking heads with pontification to spare. Mac, the empathetic soon-to-be ex-owner, waxes poetic over the beauty of an owner/pet relationship while the boss of a nearby rendering plant, all business, sneers and gloats over the uncomfortable facts of animal disposal in an urban setting. Cal, who runs the more successful memorial service (still in operation as of 2023), knows how to say what the grieving owners want to hear, but his two sons haven’t taken note and strive for different dreams.

Roger Ebert listed this as one of his ten all-time favorite films, which is how it came to my attention. I can share his fascination, if not his appreciation. Although it’s slow, meandering and limited, there’s something curious and alien about this kind of document, a window into another time and place that was once so unremarkable and now seems so novel. People no longer speak like they did forty years ago, they don’t dress the same or share similar tastes in interior décor. Perhaps more forthcoming and earnest, more willing to put their opinions about mortality, humanity and spirituality on the eternal record without a second thought. This frank sense of unguarded openness leads to abrupt laughs and deep thoughts alike, although we can’t quite tell how much of the dry humor each speaker is actually in on. Ebert found much under the surface of these interviews, leading statements that he followed to a sort of personal meditation. My own attention levels weren’t quite so sharply engaged.