A MOVIEGOER WITH A DOG is given a ride by his owner during a screening of “Inside the Mind of a Dog” at the Memorial Sports Center on Saturday. Independent photo/Steve James
MIDDLEBURY — It looks like last Saturday’s attempt in Middlebury to set a world record for the number of dogs attending a film screening fell short by about 10 dogs. But organizers of the attempt — which ties in with the Middlebury premiere of local filmmaker Andy Mitchell’s new documentary “Inside the Mind of a Dog” — are continuing to study the video to see if their original count of 210 dogs was perhaps an underestimate.
The Independent reported on August 1 that Mitchell had hoped to collar at least 220 dogs for the August 10 screening of “Inside the Mind of a Dog,” which was released on Netflix on August 9 to great acclaim and many viewers. 220 dogs would have beaten the existing Guinness World Record for most dogs attending a film screening by a single puppy.
Independent Photo/Steve James
“There were 280 registrations, but about 70 didn’t show up,” lamented Lisa Mitchell, Andy’s wife, the director of the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury and one of the driving forces behind Middlebury Underground, a local arts and event production organization that supported the attempt to set the dog attendance record.
Mitchell said at Saturday’s screening, some people showed up with dogs that were not registered before entering the Memorial Sports Center, so there’s still a chance Middlebury’s record could be broken.
OLIVER, a RED Setter, and his buddy Charlie had a double date to the screening with Hannah Turner and her mother Laura from Leicester.
Independent Photo/Steve James
And there will be a big silver lining, even though the Guinness record remains tied to the 219 dogs who attended “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie” in Los Angeles, California last fall; “Inside the Mind of a Dog” was in the top 10 films on Netflix in the U.S. last weekend. And in England, it’s the third-most watched children’s film.
Reporter John Flowers is at (email protected).
