How do I describe Laurie Anderson’s ‘Heart of a Dog’? Merely calling it a documentary would be grave injustice to the art that it is. A deeply personal reflection on love, loss and death, Heart of a dog follows a lucid dream like trajectory and remains bittersweet till the rolling credits, like life itself.
Heart of a Dog (2015) is artist Laurie Anderson’s documentary about her dog Lolabelle, and a lyrical meditation on grief, memory and love.
Inspired by the memory of her beloved dog Lolabelle, whom Laurie and her husband musician Lou Reed adopted years before, the film meanders to be so much more than a homage. Laurie Anderson’s first feature film in nearly 30 years, Heart of a dog breaks free from the defined structures of story, it is but made up of the storyteller’s dreams and memories. Perhaps it is to be admired in solitude, between the heart and the soul.
Loss is deeply personal, but it can also unite us.
It is indeed poetry, a lyrical essay of sorts on the pain of bereavement, punctuated with a motley of paintings, 8-mm archive footage (from Laurie’s childhood) and that bourbon-smooth soothing voice over. And by the time screen reads David Foster Wallace’s quote “Every love story is a ghost story,” you can’t help but nod your head in acknowledgement.
Set in the post 9/11 world, Heart of a dog follows the despair and desolation of our times– the most poignant chapter being when during a leisurely walk a hawk makes a dive for Lolabelle compelling the dog to henceforth be on the vigil that threat can come from the sky too! A poignant parallel to the paranoia of New York citizens in the aftermath of terror attacks.
I watched this documentary twice in as many weeks and coupled it with an abridged reading of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which finds a mention in the film. To not grieve for the deceased is an underlying theme of the book, not to forget the cyclical nature of the universe wherein after 49-days in the Bardo (a place where every dead organism goes to for reincarnation), life returns. While I may never have the enlightenment that the Buddhist monks possess but Lolabelle’s animated journey through it made me wonder if Kaalicharan too, is embarking on such a trail as I write.
Lou Reed’s haunting, tender music in the documentary is more than background—it’s the emotional heartbeat that carries the story. The soundtrack’s slow, lingering notes echo the bittersweet rhythm of love and loss, making every moment feel intimate and profound. The music captures what words sometimes cannot: the ache and comfort wrapped up in the act of remembering a pet.
There are beautiful imageries in heart of a dog, like the sequences in which the story, if I may call it so, unfolds via a rain-adorned glass frame. And it is not all about death either. It embraces the joy of a blind dog playing the piano. Yes, an old dog can learn new tricks! The narrative also takes on the film maker’s relationship to her dying mother whom she could never love, offering a glimpse as honest as any to an artist’s mind.
“You get your story and you hold onto it, and every time you tell it, you forget it more,” says Laurie reminiscing her childhood ordeal at the hospital where other, sicker kids screamed through the night and disappeared by morning.
How we forget our story by focusing on chapters only our own?
Part of our guide to the best dog movies.
Heart of a Dog is part of a larger artistic conversation about pets and mourning. It reminds how books written from a dog’s point of view explores similar themes – The Art of Racing in the Rain and Timbuktu, crafting narratives that honor the special place animals hold in our lives. These works together help normalize the grief many feel but rarely speak about openly, highlighting the universal nature of this bond.
As an outro to this mesmerizing work of art, Laurie has fittingly chosen her husband’s soundtrack “Turning Time Around”…
Well for me time has no meaning, no future, no past
and when you’re in love, you don’t have to ask
There’s never enough time to hold love in your grasp
turning time around
Turning time around
that is what love is
Turning time around
yes, that is what love is
My time is your time when you’re in love
and time is what you never have enough of
You can’t see or hold it, it’s exactly like love…
Perhaps this is what love is, time.
What the Heart of a Dog documentary is really about
On the surface, this is a film about Lolabelle, the rat terrier Laurie Anderson loved for years. Underneath, it is about everything her death pulls loose: Anderson’s mother, her husband, the city of New York after 9/11, and the strange machinery of memory itself. There is no plot to summarise. The film moves the way grief actually moves, in loops and asides, narrated in Anderson’s low, unhurried voice over home video, paintings and animation. Calling it a dog movie undersells it. Calling it anything but a dog movie misses the point.
Who was Lolabelle?
Lolabelle was no ordinary terrier. After she went blind, Anderson had her taught to play a keyboard and to finger-paint, and she gave actual little recitals. The film uses these small, almost absurd triumphs not as cute trivia but as proof of a mind at work, a creature improvising a life. By the time you watch her spirit drift through the afterlife, you have stopped thinking of her as a pet and started thinking of her as a someone.
Grief, the bardo and the Tibetan Book of the Dead
The spine of the film is Buddhist. Anderson follows Lolabelle through the bardo, the 49-day passage between death and rebirth described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. It sounds heavy. It plays as oddly comforting. A line from her meditation teacher, that you should learn to feel sad without being sad, runs through the whole film, and it is close to the most honest thing anyone has said about losing a dog. You do not get over it. You learn to carry it. If words help you carry it, our dog loss quotes and these letters to departed dogs sit in the same key.
The Lou Reed connection
Anderson was married to the musician Lou Reed, who died two years before the film came out. He is almost absent from it, glimpsed just once, until the very end, when his song closes the credits. That restraint is the whole point. Heart of a Dog is dedicated to him, and the long meditation on Lolabelle is also, quietly, about him. The film never says so. It does not have to.
Why it stays with dog lovers
Most dog films aim straight for the tear ducts. This one does something rarer. It sits with the grief instead of milking it, and trusts you to find your own dog inside it. If you have ever stood in a quiet house that a dog used to fill, this film will find you. It earns its place on any list of films every dog lover should watch.
Where to watch Heart of a Dog
The documentary runs about 75 minutes. It has streamed and been available to rent across different platforms over the years, so check what is carrying it in your region right now. Watch it the way it wants to be watched: alone, late, with the volume up.
Frequently asked questions
What is Heart of a Dog about?
It is Laurie Anderson’s 2015 documentary about her dog Lolabelle, and through that loss, a wider meditation on death, memory, love and the Buddhist idea of the bardo.
Who directed Heart of a Dog?
Laurie Anderson, the American artist, composer and musician, who also narrates it. It was her first feature film in nearly 30 years.
What kind of dog was Lolabelle?
A rat terrier. After losing her sight she learned to play the keyboard and to paint, and even gave small recitals.
Is Heart of a Dog a sad film?
It is tender and elegiac rather than crushing. It handles grief gently, with humour and curiosity, which is exactly why dog lovers tend to find it consoling.
Is the film connected to Lou Reed?
Yes. Anderson was married to Lou Reed; the film is dedicated to him and ends on his song, though he appears only briefly on screen.
If Heart of a Dog leaves you wanting to fill a quiet house again, consider giving a home to a dog who needs one. Adopt, don’t shop.