[EBB Sightings] 3/29 film on birders at Pacific Film Archive

ALTERNATIVE VISIONS:

TUE MAR 29 2005
7:30 The Birdpeople
Michael Gitlin (U.S., 2004)

Artist in Person

Michael Gitlin teaches at Hunter College in New York City.

Tonight we present three films that delve into the dusty, dark corners of 
natural history to explore the animal �other� and humans' attempts to both 
understand and relate to the unknown. Michael Gitlin's new work The 
Birdpeople is a fascinating, multifaceted glimpse into the worlds of bird 
watching, monitoring, and collecting. The look of the camera, the 
binoculars, and the bird, the call of birder and bird, are intertwined and 
exchanged in this self-conscious, loving tribute to amateur and scientific 
bird lovers. Beautiful footage of birds optically printed from Kodachrome 
Super-8, �still� shots of natural history collections, and footage of a 
search for the birder's �Bigfoot,� the ivory-billed woodpecker, foreground 
issues of projection, loss, and obsession. (61 mins)

�Kathy Geritz

Preceded by shorts:
Jim Trainor's Magic Kingdom (U.S, 2002, 7 mins), part of an ongoing series 
on animals and their limitations that mixes his animation and live-action 
footage of man's nearest relatives; and Nancy Andrews's Monkey and Lumps 
(U.S., 2003, 38 mins, Color/B&W), a puppet and drawn animation film 
featuring a public illustrator whose animated chalk-talks delve into her 
theories on chimps, nature, and science.

(Total running time: 106 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artists)


Tom Condit
tomcondit at igc.org