I'm David Ferrier, a New Zealander who ended up accidentally marooned in America, and I want to grasp what makes this country tick.

Like a lot of kids, I grew up loving American movies, from Beverly Hills Cop to Die Had, the Goonies to Free Willie.

Warner Brothers proudly presents.

Let's Free Willie.

He's got a family out there at home.

As I got older, I realized that most of what I understood about America I'd learnt from American

films and TV shows. I mean at one point in the 90s I called my cat Chandler Bing. That says all you need to know.

And there's probably one American movie that stuck with me more than most.

It came out during my last year of high school, form 7, what Americans would call my senior year.

And it really left a mark on what I thought of American culture.

Live from Philadelphia, it's the 125th annual Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show, 3,000 dogs competing for Best In Show.

Best in Show was a mockumentary about dog shows.

You know, competitive dog shows.

That goal is that best in show ribbon.

Even though the film wasn't real, it was a glimpse into a world I didn't know existed, the worlds of competitively showing animals.

It felt very real, which is the magic ingredient in all of Christopher Gess's films, I suppose.

The competition in the egos captivated me, not to mention the complex politics of breeding

pets that are meant to be genetically superior to your average mutt.

The film stuck with me, and now that I find myself

marooned in America I decided it was time to step out of the world of the

Mockumentary I knew so well and go to a real dog show. And there are a lot of dog shows in the United States, about 3,500

every year, which makes sense when you consider over 63 million American households own a dog, spending a total of 5.3 billion dollars a year on dog food.

...