"MEDIA RELEASE: The sky is now officially the limit for musician and multimedia artist Amy Raasch, whose captivatingly campy, psychedelic video for Kitty Decides is currently featured as part of Virgin America Airlines in-flight entertainment. Proceeds benefit animal rescue.
Vibrantly captured by cinematographer Kelly Jones of Foo Fighters’ viral sensation White Limo, Kitty Decides pounces from the screen with celebrity cats, a kindle of curious rescue kittens, and a band of seven-year-old girls rocking out to an infectious, electro-pop earworm produced by lauded songsmith David Poe. As a white rescue cat watches it all on TV, the video unpacks the aloofness, unpredictability and downright weirdness that cat fanatics ascribe to their felines and effectively flips the paradigm of humans watching cats to cats watching us.
"Many cats love being pet - until they do not,” quips Raasch, whose multimedia performances embrace animal themes. "The project was inspired by that moment when you’re petting a cat and the cat flops over on its side to present its stomach, so you pet the stomach and it chomps you! Cats do exactly what they want, when they want. How different is that from the human heart? It’s equally unwieldy and impossible to control.”
An adoptee herself, Raasch has always had a soft spot for homeless animals. "In a sense, all baby animals are adopted -- or left to fend for themselves. Yet unlike humans, they cannot advocate for themselves.” As a volunteer, Raasch witnessed the intense overwhelm experienced by local rescue organizations in the face of a staggering number of abandoned pets. Americans spend $56 billion annually on pet care and countless hours racking up billions of views of cat videos; yet the benefit to the animals they love to watch is practically zero. That realization inspired Raasch’s vision for a one-touch donation button next to every online animal video that would allow viewers to contribute to rescue efforts in one click.
“Cats have an innate quirkiness, austere dignity and complete lack of sense of humor that ends up making them hilarious,” says Raasch. “Why not give back to the creatures that provide us with so much laughter and stress relief?” As she works toward her larger mission to revolutionize the online donation platform, Raasch aims to inspire animal video devotees to support not only well-known national rescue organizations, but local groups in dire need of funding and volunteers.
"Gandhi said, 'The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the ways its animals are treated,” says Raasch. “And we all love our favorite cat lady, Taylor Swift. But it’s nice to know you don’t have to be famous to help.”