The filmmaker Judy Irving says in the film she wanted to do a more personal film for once, but it appears she got more than she bargained for.
The twin subjects of the film are one of the two parrot flocks in San Francisco and Mark Bittner, a barely employed but highly intelligent musician whose life had come to revolve almost completely around observing and interacting with the wild parrot flock. They they are technically wild (escaped from captivity or born to escaped parents), Bittner would supplement their food and care for the wounded and dying parrots.
Mark had taken his own pictures and video of the parrots in some of their more memorable moments: first flights, acts of parrot bravery, etc., and his personal views of the parrots thoughts and actions, while he is not a parrot biologist by training, seem instantly sensible. He goes through a rundown of their mating pairs, childrearing practices, and daily habits on a parrot by parrot basis, so that by the end the viewer can tell the parrots apart, and the personality differences between them seem so striking that the viewer constantly has to remind himself that Bittner is not talking about human beings.
I think each viewer will probably always view parrots more anthropomorphically after this movie, and that may be the real treasure of the film. The film follows a bit of the publicity surrounding the parrots, what different people in the city propose to do about this non-native species (e.g. trap it, exterminate it, ignore it), but after seeing them live and love and play for an hour and a half up close, it's impossible to see them as just more colorful pigeons or pests or a curiosity of island biogeography.
The filming is extremely well done, capturing many moments it might be thought would be impossible to capture without uncanny luck or infinite patience, the film moves at a good pace, and it covers both the parrots and the questions most viewers have about them such as: Are any professionals studying them? Where did they come from? How do they survive outside of their native South American habitat? What threatens their existence now? How does Bittner manage to do any of this without a job or a place to live? Are there any other flocks in North America? And it's a film that children can enjoy, too, both for it's visual beaut y and educational value.
The twin subjects of the film are one of the two parrot flocks in San Francisco and Mark Bittner, a barely employed but highly intelligent musician whose life had come to revolve almost completely around observing and interacting with the wild parrot flock. They they are technically wild (escaped from captivity or born to escaped parents), Bittner would supplement their food and care for the wounded and dying parrots.
Mark had taken his own pictures and video of the parrots in some of their more memorable moments: first flights, acts of parrot bravery, etc., and his personal views of the parrots thoughts and actions, while he is not a parrot biologist by training, seem instantly sensible. He goes through a rundown of their mating pairs, childrearing practices, and daily habits on a parrot by parrot basis, so that by the end the viewer can tell the parrots apart, and the personality differences between them seem so striking that the viewer constantly has to remind himself that Bittner is not talking about human beings.
I think each viewer will probably always view parrots more anthropomorphically after this movie, and that may be the real treasure of the film. The film follows a bit of the publicity surrounding the parrots, what different people in the city propose to do about this non-native species (e.g. trap it, exterminate it, ignore it), but after seeing them live and love and play for an hour and a half up close, it's impossible to see them as just more colorful pigeons or pests or a curiosity of island biogeography.
The filming is extremely well done, capturing many moments it might be thought would be impossible to capture without uncanny luck or infinite patience, the film moves at a good pace, and it covers both the parrots and the questions most viewers have about them such as: Are any professionals studying them? Where did they come from? How do they survive outside of their native South American habitat? What threatens their existence now? How does Bittner manage to do any of this without a job or a place to live? Are there any other flocks in North America? And it's a film that children can enjoy, too, both for it's visual beaut y and educational value.