This year’s Slamdance Film Festival kicks off this Friday with an opening night film that could not be more adorable. Dana Nachman and Don Hardy’s documentary “Pick of the Litter” follows five puppies as they train to become guide dogs for the blind.
Spoiler alert: Patriot, Poppet, Potomac, Primrose and Phil don’t all make the cut to become full-fledged service animals.
“Pick of the Litter,” which premieres this Friday in Park City, follows a litter of puppies from the moment they’re born and begin their quest to become guide dogs. Cameras follow these pups through an intense two-year odyssey as they train to become dogs whose ultimate responsibility is to protect their blind partners from harm.
Along the way, these remarkable animals rely on a community of dedicated individuals who train them to do amazing, life-changing things in the service of their human.
Nachman’s most recent film, “Batkid Begins” — on which Hardy served as director of photography — premiered at Slamdance in 2015 and quickly became one of the most successful docs of the year.
Warner Bros. picked up worldwide distribution rights, as well as the rights to adapt the documentary into a narrative film with Julia Roberts attached to produce and star.
Nachman and Hardy previously co-directed the feature docs “The Human Experiment,” “Witch Hunt,” and “Love Hate Love.”
Watch the trailer above.