ONE MAN'S AWAKENING TO BEAUTY OF BIRD SONG.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic 'I'M NOT AN eccentric,'' Mark Bittner Mark Bittner (b. 1951 in Vancouver, Washington) is an American writer. He is the author of The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. Bittner spent 14 years in the streets of San Francisco after his dream of becoming a professional musician fell apart. explains in the opening moments of the wonderful documentary ``The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill The placename Telegraph Hill may refer to several and perhaps dozens of different places in the anglophone world. (Its equivalents in other languages may also be common placenames. .'' Bittner blanches at the word, and you could see how a guy who has spent a chunk of his life feeding birds and cataloging their existence might be a tad defensive over people getting the wrong idea. In the same way, you shouldn't get the wrong idea about this film. ``Wild Parrots'' isn't some namby-pamby nature movie about a modern-day St. Francis of San Francisco. Yes, we watch Bittner befriend be·friend tr.v. be·friend·ed, be·friend·ing, be·friends To behave as a friend to. befriend Verb to become a friend to Verb 1. a flock of birds near his Telegraph Hill home, feed them and love them. And, boy, if the whole thing doesn't make you a little misty-eyed by the end. But filmmaker Judy Irving is clear-eyed when it comes to the harsh realities of nature. The hawks are always circling and the birds (cherry- headed conures, to be precise) themselves can be incalculably cruel. There's no Disney-style anthropomorphism anthropomorphism (ăn'thrəpōmôr`fĭzəm) [Gr.,=having human form], in religion, conception of divinity as being in human form or having human characteristics. here. Yet, these birds slowly emerge as sharply defined individuals, creatures that we come to know much more intimately than most characters in Hollywood movies. They mate, they fight, they play, they pick on the less fortunate, they live in fear, they ignore another conure Co`nure´ n. 1. (Zool.) An American parrakeet of the genus Conurus. Many species are known. See Parrakeet. simply because he has blue feathers instead of red. The long-haired Bittner had lived in San Francisco's North Beach area for 14 years as a homeless person An individual who lacks housing, including one whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility that provides temporary living accommodations; an individual who is a resident in transitional housing; or an individual who has as a primary residence a , looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. spirituality and meaning. Bittner's curiosity, along with his penchant for not following society's conventions and his love for the eco-friendly author Gary Snyder (who shares with Bittner a belief in Buddhist tenets) led him to the birds, which ultimately put him on a path where he found contentment in a number of other areas. Bittner's journey and its surprising destinations and revelations are among the film's many pleasures. The movie builds a momentum, moving from the facts about the flock to Bittner's inscrutable connection to them to something almost spiritual, something anyone who has ever loved an animal or searched for a purpose in this mixed-up world can understand. This is a beautiful movie. Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL - Three and one half stars (G) Director: Judy Irving. Running time: 1 hr. 23 min. Playing: Landmark's Nuart Theater in West Los Angeles
In a nutshell: Beautiful documentary about a man who befriends a group of parrots and finds meaning in his life in the act and well beyond. |
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