After spending 83 minutes with Mark Bittner and the flock of WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL that have allowed him into their lives, it?s easy to come away with the sense that there was an element of fate in their meeting up. An 魩gr頦rom Washington state with plans to be a musician, he got sidetracked by the flock of cherry-headed conures that have taken up residence on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. If Mark is enraptured by the complex life of these birds, filmmaker Judy Irving is similarly fascinated by him, and it is that delight in this true original that drives this gem of a documentary.
Interspersed with meeting the individuals in the flock are snippets of conversations between the two, who have a rapport as easy as that of Mark and the birds. How, she wonders, does this guy live in San Francisco, with no visible means of support, and manage to stay afloat for 26 years in one of the most expensive cities in the world? If Mark is a field guide to the parrots, Irving is the field guide to their best pal. The difference is that while Mark has to make guesses about the lives of the conures before he knew them, Judy can ask things like what sets him apart from the lady in the park who feeds the pigeons. What emerges is that the common bond between man and bird is the idea of freedom. Like the wild parrots who prefer life without bars, he?s given up the security of 9 to 5 in exchange for following his bliss.
The camera allows the audience to get to the birds almost as intimately as Mark does: Picasso and Sophie, a bonded pair each with a lingering disability; Mingus, a split-personality born in the wild, as were the other birds in the flock, but paradoxically driven to be an indoor bird, and Connor, a blue-crowned conure and the outcast of the flock, who surprised Mark by not wanting a human friend, not unlike the way the cherry-headed conures didn?t want Connor for a friend. Anthropomorphism or merely framing bird behavior framed in terms that we humans can understand? The question naturally arises, how much is Mark projecting onto the birds, and how much is astute observation. Perhaps it?s the sensitive, playful way that Judy captures the birds and Mark, but the emotional conclusion is that beyond a certain, perhaps inevitable, anthropomorphism borne of the need to frame affairs avian in human terms, Mark?s calls are right on target. His affection for these creatures as equals is almost giddy and is infectious. Part soap-opera, part comedy, and part drama of the first order, there are the dangers of hawks, the precariousness of San Francisco housing, and the joy of a fledgling flying for the first time, The quieter moments are no less joyful, with man human and bird enjoying one another?s company. What?s made abundantly clear throughout, though, is that while it may be the human handing out the food, it is the birds who are bestowing the real gift of their companionship and their trust.
Funny, sweet, and unexpectedly moving, this is not just a study of man and birds, it?s also, and perhaps more importantly, a thoughtful consideration of what it means in real world terms to follow one?s bliss, accepting the sacrifices that, in turn, turn out to be the path to an authentic, truly fulfilling life.
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