KCRA, channel 3 cameraman Mike Carroll?s first film documentary provides an answer to one of pop cultures newest and most rhetorical questions: “Who let the dogs out?!”

Whether there is a real connection between the top forty hit song of the same name and Carroll?s independent documentary, Dog Soldiers, a Dogumentary which premiered on Sunday at the Crest theater, is up to debate. But Dog Soldiers is actually a 44-minute in-your-face documentary about the people who let the proverbial dogs out.

Shot entirely by Carroll on a digital camera, the film chronicles the New York dog-walking industry, one of the nation?s biggest according to Carroll. The documentary says that there are over one million dogs in the city. Carroll follows some very zealous players on the dog-walking scene and follows them as they go about a full day’s work.

The dog-walkers treat their profession with an unexpected seriousness that gives the film a degree of dry humor. The film juxtaposes the removed and observational feel of documentary with the off-beat and lively topic of dogs in New York.

Carroll is a news cameraman by day and it shows. The camerawork in Dog Soldiers goes far beyond the standard head shots used by most first time filmmakers. Carroll uses low camera angels and unorthodox tilts that give his subjects abstract and sometimes imposing presence, adding to the film?s irony. His shots of the city are well composed, while maintaining the spontaneous content of a documentary.

Dog Soldiers is undeniably original and should put Carroll in the running for best of show among Sacramento?s most talented emerging filmmakers.

Four Sinatras out of five