Gates of heaven

18.30 = CINEMA CAFÉ OPENS
19:30 = GATES OF HEAVEN
Inspired by a newspaper headline, "450 Dead Pets Going to Napa Valley," this film focuses on an assortment of characters involved in the pet cemetery business in 1970s California, yet Morris' legendary documentary debut is woven with ambiguity. Is the film objective or subjective? Does it purport to be a study of loneliness or are these people being mocked? Roger Ebert has famously called it a "litmus test" for audiences who cannot decide if it is one or the other. Entertaining, touching and vaguely disturbing all at once, the film offers no final answer but poses some profound questions about our need for companionship and belief in some kind of reunion in the afterlife.