Register  |  Sign In
View unanswered posts | View active topics It is currently Fri Apr 19, 2024 7:49 am



Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 
 The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill 

What grade would you give this film?
A 100%  100%  [ 1 ]
B 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
C 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
D 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
F 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Total votes : 1

 The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill 
Author Message
 
User avatar

Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:01 pm
Posts: 6385
Post The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

Image

Quote:
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is a 2005 documentary film directed, produced, and edited by Judy Irving. It chronicles the relationship between Mark Bittner, an unemployed musician who is living rent-free in a cabin in Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, California, and a flock of feral parrots (cherry-headed and two blue-crowned conures) that he feeds and interacts with. Bittner also wrote a book by the same name on the subject. In May 2007, the documentary aired on the PBS series Independent Lens.

Much of the documentary focuses on the individual parrots, and their relationships with one another. Bittner notes that there is humor in the piece, which he believes makes it different from many other nature documentaries. Raising funding for the film was difficult at first, as Irving had to find individual donors. The proceeds from a fundraiser, in which Bittner gave a presentation to a packed theater, allowed Irving to start shooting the film in earnest.

The musical score was created by Chris Michie, a Bay area musician, formerly the guitarist for Van Morrison. It was his final project before he died from melanoma. The film, which he did not live to see released, is dedicated to him.

_________________
---!!---!!!!!!-11!!---!!---11---11!!!--!!--


Sun Feb 03, 2008 6:00 am
Profile WWW
Devil's Advocate
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2005 2:30 am
Posts: 37974
Post Re: The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
This was really interesting. It raises some interesting questions... I for one didn't know birds could have such individual personality traits, that their community would operate similarly to ours. The implication that a bird could be the parrot version of the lonely and bitter old man of a town, that a bird would "want" to stay inside, that a bird couple would get in a fight of sorts over whether one is away too much(one bird is in the cage, the other able to be wild), or that a bird when sick would want to die with its nearest friend(In this case Mark)... Maybe those events were overemphasized, but in any case it's a good study on whether or not animals can somewhat feel things the same way as us.

Mark is really charasmatic here, you can tell he loves his birds and in part the movie can be seen as about him and his dedication and way of life as much as it can the parrots itself. It's a pretty entertaining doc, if anything it feels short.

4/5

_________________
Shack’s top 50 tv shows - viewtopic.php?f=8&t=90227


Sun Feb 03, 2008 3:19 pm
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic   [ 2 posts ] 

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 71 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by STSoftware for PTF.