Barking Island

The winner of the award for best short film at this year's Cannes Film Festival, French-Armenian filmmaker Serge Avedikian's animated short is set in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1910, when the new Young Turks regime attempts to clear the city of stray dogs by sending them to a deserted island. Barking Island also works as an allegory of the Armenian genocide, during which Ottoman authorities instigated massacres against Armenians from 1915 to 1918. Admission is free, with donations going to a fund for the care of 41 mistreated dogs. A slide show of stray dogs in Istanbul follows, plus a discussion about government policies on abandoned animals. Sat, 6pm, Room L7-19, Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, 30 Pak Tin Street, Shek Kip Mei. For reservations, call 9681 2220 or 9098 9151.