Rethinking the threesome: 'Cat Dancers' documentary on HBO is about more than tigers

December 16, 12:56 AMSex & Relationships ExaminerSarah Estrella

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Cat Dancers (Photo credit: Barbara Brooks, via HBO.com)

The Cat Dancers documentary that opened its run on HBO tonight is a fascinating film for anybody interested in relationship dynamics: Filmmaker Harris Fishman uses Ron Holiday's account of his long-running love triangle with his wife Joy Holiday and their fellow "Cat Dancer" Chuck Lizza as a lens into the nature of human sexuality and the complexity of relationships.

I found myself fascinated, first by Ron's stories about the animals they worked with and their training methods, and later by his account of the tragic deaths of Joy and Chuck and Jupiter,the beloved tiger that had to be put down in the aftermath... but most of all by the candid and respectful portrayal of a threesome that actually worked out and lasted, and of the film's open and honest handling of Ron's bisexuality.

The story and its characters are strange, but also strangely appealing, and I can't think of a more measured or sympathetic account of a bisexual relationship. For that matter, I can't recall ever hearing of any three-way love affair that lasted anywhere near as long as the Cat Dancers'.

It's a testament to both Ron as narrator and to filmmaker Harris Fishman that most viewers will come away from the film wanting to celebrate this relationship, mourn the death of the tiger that ended it, and cheer Ron on (he hopes to retire to a Thai monastery where the monks live among wild animals), all at the same time.  

Cat Dancers will be on HBO On Demand starting tomorrow and will run through next month. Full schedule here.  

Also... HBO has a nice interview with filmmaker Harris Fishman