The Dog

Over ten years in the making, Allison Berg’s and Frank Keraudren’s powerful documentary The Dog follows the life of Jon Wojtowicz, who tried spectacularly to secure the money for his partner’s sex change by robbing a bank. His attempted heist was made famous by Sidney Lumet’s 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon. Making use of copious archive footage, photographs and the testimonials of contemporaries the filmmakers follow not only the man’s bizarre life and progression from lower-middle-class right-winger to militant gay activist, but also provide an unconventional survey of gay culture in New York during the last forty years. The Dog is truly a labour of love, with the fascinating Wojtowicz as its anti-hero, captured here in all his humaneness: ‘the dog’ (as he likes to call himself) is lovable, manic, heroic, hopelessly sentimental, self-destructive, sex-obsessed, violent, manipulative, obsessive and unpredictable. His radical, earthy humour also makes him a fantastic storyteller.