“Wait, you’re literally having your own cat’s baby!”

In documentaries, the point is to examine and present the truth. In mockumentaries, however, the unbelievably absurd is treated like the truth. In the instance of Kitty Mammas, a camera crew follows a literal mad scientist – Dr. Han (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) – as he leads a clinical trial in which four women give birth…to kittens.

Though slightly disgraced from previous endeavours, Dr. Han has been presented the opportunity of being a modern day Frankenstein of sorts. The experiment, made possible by financial backers and desperate participants, lasts over a three month period which sees the cat foetus grow to the size of a kitten with next to no visible bump. Plus, the participants even get to keep the kitten if successful! The diversity in the mothers-to-be ranges from the LGBTQ+ community, undergrad students, middle-aged mothers, and vloggers, but they all want one thing: to give birth to a kitten. This is a common goal like no other.

With the participants’ diverse range of backgrounds comes a diverse range of issues and obstacles which they must endure. The challenges they face range from financial inheritance, online backlash, and acceptance. Running parallel, Dr Kittenstein faces the annoying persistence of Darryl (Drew Nelson), a journalist desperate to expose the grotesque experiment, but also in pursuit of revenge. After the 90-day period, what will be of Sylvia (Janet Porter), Joan (Kathryn Kohut), Maria (Vienna Hehir) and Rose (Morgan Kohan)? New mothers? Human-cat hybrids? 

As a mockumentary, Kitty Mammas exists as both a surreal comedy and a drama which deals with serious issues too. The balance of both is certainly effective in its execution, though the mockumentary style is much more frequent and attempted when dealing with the surrealist nature of the clinical trial. Kitty Mammas almost feels like a hybrid of two movies, but with the same cast. A major issue, however, is that in the mockumentary, extraordinary and out-of-this-world characters and situations are depicted realistically, despite being completely unbelievable and unrealistic. The unbelievable is made believable. In Kitty Mammas, whilst the characters deal with such realistic, relevant, and hard-hitting issues outside of the clinical trial, there is an overwhelming ambiance of the film not feeling one bit real. Kitty Mammas doesn’t even feel like a documentary. 

Of course, there is an excruciating difficulty in making such a wild concept seem at all plausible. Humans giving birth to kittens is just mind boggling. The heart of Kitten Mammas really lies within the social issues explored outside of the medical practice. The four performances of the trialists are all terrific respectively, especially that of Vienna Hehir. Under the screenwriting of Katrina Nicholson, the characters – specifically the trialists – are empowered to really showcase both the power and vulnerability which they possess within. These are strong characters. Strongly written characters. 

Ultimately, from director Dennis Alexander Nicholson, Kitten Mammas can be read as a film with a hidden agenda… The kitten trial stuff is just for show. Essentially, the concept is just the overcoat covering a body which provides a commentary on social issues. This form of trickery is terrific in that it, to some degree, pays off because the issues explored are done really well. Probably the best aspect of the film overall. Though a great exploration of issues, one can’t imagine that much of Kitty Mammma’s audience will be coming for a class on sociology, but instead, they’ll be wanting to see something totally messed up, like the film initially suggests.  

Rating: 2/5