The poignant tale of an offbeat animal menagerie

In this short documentary film, Amy Nicholson features her dad and his wife and the menagerie of animals that they have collected and cared for over the years, including rescue chickens, a fish who couldn’t swim (the eponymous “Pickle”), a paraplegic possum that used a homemade wheelchair to get around, cross-eyed cats, and many many animals who met premature ends after being carted away by various prey.

I try to find a funny side to everything, and tragedy is no exception. This film’s unrelenting march of death has a light side, but hopefully between morbid curiosity and chuckling at the sheer volume of casualties, the audience will find a bit of themselves in this film. “Pickle” examines the depths of one couple’s devotion to their pets while exploring the complicated relationship that we humans have with all animals. If you find a hurt animal that you’re able to help, is it moral to come to its rescue, as we would with a human? Or is it true compassion to let nature take its course?

• Amy Nicholson
• video