Short and Sweet: The Passing

Dr. Mike Mullen, the subject of "The Passing," the new documentary from Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan

There's a geographic divide in the works of Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan.

The Best of Austin-winning filmmakers called Austin their home for years, but their films have mostly centered on other communities. Indeed, shorts like "The Rabbit Hunt" and Skip Day" and their 2019 feature Pahokee have come together to form a panoramic view of small-town Florida.

Now they've left Austin for Asheville, North Carolina, but their old hometown is the location of the South By Southwest 2024 selection, "The Passing." Lucas explained, "This short was shot entirely with our neighbors on West 10th Street, in Clarksville. Dr. Mullen, the veterinarian, is a local legend. When folks at The New Yorker saw this, one of their employees realized he had his dog put down by Dr. Mullen when he lived in Austin.

Austin Chronicle: How did you first meet Dr. Mullen?

Patrick Bresnan: Dr. Mullen lived catty corner from us at the intersection of 10th and West Lynn. We rented a small duplex there for 10 years and and would see him daily walking his coon hound to the park and inviting neighbors to his front porch for margaritas. He was our vet as well.

AC: The documentary centers around one of the most intimate tasks a vet has to perform, of euthanizing a beloved pet. How did you settle on that as the main narrative element?

PB: Ivete and I had been through this process two times with clinic- based vets and been very affected by it. We knew that most of the house calls Dr. Mullen had been doing were related to the end of life and felt that it could be a profound film to see the process unfold.

AC: How did you find someone that was willing to let you film the procedure?

PB: I had been asking Dr. Mullen for months about filming the end of life of one of his patients, and while he thought it could be valuable to share that moment he did not have anyone willing to do it. Then our next door neighbor who lived across the street from Dr. Mullen stated to feel that her 16-year-old dog Fiona was nearing the end. We were all very close and so I asked if she would mind us filming Fiona’s passing and she was open to it.

PB: It was emotionally overwhelming to be present as Cindy let go of Fiona. Fiona was Cindy’s everything. The editing of the scene was also incredibly difficult because Ivete had to watch these intense moments a hundred or more times as she worked finding the right rhythm of the scene.

The Passing

Texas Shorts Program

Friday, March 8, 5:45pm, Rollins Theatre

Monday, March 11, 11am, Rollins Theatre