Wednesday, May 25, 2005

 
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

In a time when 'documentary' has come to mean clinical across-the-table interviews married to stock news footage with voiceover, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill stands out from the crowd by treating its subject cinematically and organically. Watching it, I was transported to the late seventies and early eighties, that last great era of the documentary as subjective auteur artform (as opposed to today's tendency towards PBS-ready Objective History). When the likes of Ross McElwee and the Maysles Brothers were working the scene with their Eclair NPR's on their shoulders (Parrots documentarian Judy Irving also shoots on an NPR), flies on the wall capturing America's peculiar and varied microcosms in the French Cinema Verite tradition.

Yes, "Enron" and "Fog of War" are factually instructive and "Bowling for Columbine" politically poignant, but "Wild Parrots" actually brings you somewhere, shows you emotion on a human (as opposed to geopolitical or energy-market) scale and makes the puttering about of a guy and some birds seem to amount to something significantly greater than a hill of beans (or parrot poop).

Shot in glorious super-16mm, Irving's picture is also the best-looking documentary since "I am Trying to Break Your Heart." The cinematography beautfifully establishes a sense of place, showing the parrot flock surrounded by fog-shrouded coves, a looming Coit tower, a distant Alcatraz. The look is rich and organic, as opposed to HandyCam electrofringe formica, a treat for the eyes throughout.

The filmmaker, Judy Irving, makes no effort to remove herself from the proceedings; given that she constantly interacted with the subject(s) over a six-year period, how could she? By keeping her presence felt, Irving arrives at an emotional honesty that finally pays off as the picture comes to a close in a surprise ending. In the end, we are grateful for her gentle, thoughful subjectivity. It comes off feeling real and it shows up all the artifice inherent in just about every other documentary that's played the circuit in the last decade.

How authentic, how refreshing this all feels.

Highly recommended.

**** (out of four)

posted 10:11 PM