Last Thursday I had the opportunity to watch Fursonas, a documentary on the furry fandom. If you’re not aware of the film, you can watch a trailer for it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul-Z6G9uXtY An additional clip that gives a good idea of the theme is here: https://vimeo.com/150355594

The following covers my thoughts on the documentary. I’m not sure how much I can reveal without pissing someone off, so I’ll leave comments about any edits at the end of this.

I didn’t watch the trailer before going into it, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Actually, that’s not entirely true; I expected the worse. Who in the fandom wouldn’t, at this point? I’ve been a furry since 1998, and have seen many of the well-known instances where the fandom was dragged through the mud for one reason or another. It often seems like nothing good can come from an outsider pointing a camera at the fandom. I had also heard that furries who had been the source of negative experience with the media, like Boomer the dog, would be featured. But I had to see it, if only to satisfy my morbid curiosity and lust for B-movies. Cringe-fest, here we come.

This movie is different. For one, the director is a furry (I’ll refer to him by his furry character here, Video the wolf), though he didn’t make this fact known to his crew or subjects until well into the project. For another, he lets the subjects do the talking, for better or worse. The film opens with a look into the life of that infamous furry, Boomer the dog. Boomer made the news a few years back by trying to have his name legally changed to “Boomer the dog”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he lost that court case. Besides learning about the case, we also learn about his fascination with Boomer and dogs in general, as well as what being a furry means to him and how his hobbies help him connect to the community. Not knowing anything about him beyond his court case and therian-like canine identity, I was surprised to see what a genuinely positive and happy person he was. I will admit I was also a bit ashamed at having assumed someone like him must be a full-on freak.

The film focuses on the lives of several other furries, as well. Diesel the raccoon, Bandit the dog, and Skye the wolf, to name a couple. They talk about what drew them to the fandom, their thoughts on what it means to be a furry, and how they’ve been able to express themselves within the community. It’s not always clear exactly what questions were asked of them, but the responses were lengthy, thoughtful, and heartfelt. Diesel talks about his outing to a few coworkers eventually lead to harassment at work. Freya describes what it’s like being a furry and a mother. This is one of the brightest parts of the movie, where you learn about the person under the fursuit, and that they may have a weird hobby, but they are still people, and people are complicated. Even if you may not be a furry (a perspective I tried to hold while watching), their stories are still relatable or elicit sympathy in some ways.

You may be wondering, ‘how objective is this documentary?’ Personally, I was impressed that it was fairly objective when it came to its portrayal of the fandom. There were lots of positive moments, but it didn’t shy away from more controversial things. However, there was a distinct focus on a certain member of the fandom: Uncle Kage. This will likely be the main talking point for anyone who watches the documentary (it certainly drew a lot of additional questions from the audience during the Q&A). Throughout the first half of the film, clips of Uncle Kage talking about the fandom and what it means to be a furry are shown. They’re encouraging, even charming. Then, the tone starts to change. As the film explores the fandom’s avoidance of the media, we see more clips of Uncle Kage, as he runs a panel tutoring others on how to engage with or avoid the media. He touts his status as a politician and public figure as credibility to his authority. This leads to more videos of him speaking about his militaristic stance on protecting the fandom’s public perception, and his firm beliefs on how furries should conduct themselves. To paraphrase a point he made, “a reputation takes years to build up, and seconds to destroy”. At one point, Video himself is shown logging into a Winestream session with Uncle Kage and challenging him on if Anthrocon’s media relations policies should be so strict. Uncle Kage looks into his webcam and shouts “fuck yes!” Up to now, I had largely ignored Uncle Kage and his influence over Anthrocon and the fandom; being one of those stubborn freethinker types, I have a personal aversion towards authorities and celebrities. Seeing these clips, I was left feeling conflicted, in support of the concepts of maturity and discretion, but balking at the fascist presentation.

It may seem like a tangent to talk so much about these scenes. A lot of the film centered around Anthrocon, as Video is from Pittsburgh and the con happened to be going on when his team decided to do a documentary on furries. With that context, it’s no surprise that Uncle Kage’s presence loomed large throughout the film. Especially during the (surprisingly only) second-most prominent focus of the movie: sex in the fandom. We’re returned to the previous subjects, who all offer their thoughts on the public’s views of the fandom as a bunch of perverts, misconceptions about sex in fursuits, and all things we in the fandom have likely heard before. There’s a scene I found particularly amusing; a clip of Uncle Kage ranting that whatever weird sexually devious things occur in the fandom either don’t exist or are entirely unwanted suddenly cuts to Varka quietly sitting in front of a bookshelf full of Bad Dragon toys. These extremes and the contrast between them makes for perfect bookends to the massive grey area that is the fandom’s approach to sex and sexuality.

Speaking of polarizing figures, we also see what ChewFox and her mate have been up to since they both appeared on the Tyra Banks episode, where they confidently admitted to being furries, and to having sex in fursuits. I’d seen that episode before, of course, and the outrage over it. As with Boomer, based on what little I knew of ChewFox and her mate led me to assume they must be pretty awful. Instead, I was impressed with ChewFox’s candor about the incident. I can’t recall where exactly during the film, but we see a clip of Uncle Kage talking about how acceptance of others is a core and universal aspect of the fandom, a binding glue we should celebrate and enforce. Following the interview with ChewFox, we’re treated to Uncle Kage again talking about public perception of the fandom, and how some people try to ruin that perception. “I won’t name names, like ChewFox. Fucking bitch.” This is something he said, in seriousness, in front of a large panel of furries. The sudden hypocrisy was quite a shock. If he’s nominated himself to be a role model for the furry community, why does he think openly insulting members of that community is acceptable? Isn’t he aware that this tells others that it’s okay for them to do so as well? Has he forgotten that being a role model or a politician is a full-time job, and everything you say and do at any moment is scrutinized? He lectures us on acceptance and putting forth a good representation to the public, only to then call a member of the fandom a “fucking bitch” to a room full of people and cameras; do we really want that sort of person speaking for us, no matter how good of a media schmooze he is? Questions like these lingered in my thoughts well after the movie was over.

This is another area that the film excels in: getting the viewer to question the status quo of the fandom (at least if they’re already a furry). Hearing the experiences of different furries, how they view the fandom, and how furries treat each other, picks at your confidence that everything is great the way it is. Our fandom strives to be open and accepting, but as Uncle Kage ironically put it, we’re not, “we’re tolerant”. It may not be apparent to a non-furry watching, but the film carries the undertones of a harsh self-criticism within the fandom. Can we consider our fandom mature when we’re too inexperienced with and paranoid of the media? Are we really holding ourselves to an appropriate standard when we’re so quick to attack and judge each other over what we personally believe furry should be about?

I really, really wish I could tell you how it ends. It’s such a perfect counter to the dark subjects the film covers in the last third.

I do have criticisms on the film itself. It focused on fursuiters, which isn’t much of an issue, but I felt it didn’t adequately show that that’s only a subset of the fandom. While it did mention that furry is as much about art and creativity as anything else, and each person interviewed showed off their creative sides (along with having a frame showing personalized art introducing their character), I think more examples could have been given to show the massive amount of artwork this fandom produces. Fursonas aren’t only realized through fursuits. I can’t recall if any mention was made of the contributions the fandom makes to the outside world. If there was anything said about the amount of money for charities that is raised, or even the amount of money Anthrocon makes for Pittsburgh as way of explanation for the con’s good standing with the city, it went by quickly enough for me to miss it. Certainly something we should be proud of, but perhaps a focus on that would skew too much towards a positive bias. While I disagreed with others that the film was anti-Kage propaganda (he gives himself plenty of microphone cord to hang himself with), putting so much of the film’s focus on him seems odd in retrospect, since the theme is on fursonas, and what makes someone a furry. Finally, while an important topic that was covered well, I still thought the film focused too much on the sexual side of the fandom. There’s so much that could be said about it, but what was said ended up becoming redundant.

Those personal irks aside, it’s a very good documentary overall. It does what a documentary like this should: introduce viewers to new experiences and challenge those in-the-know to reflect on an outside perspective. Before the movie started, I took a good luck around the audience and only saw a few recognizable furry faces. When the film was over, the audience very enthusiastically applauded and cheered. That’s quite an endorsement! I should also mention that it won the Spirit of Slamdance award. As a furry and as a person, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and encourage you to see it if you ever get the chance.