Two amazing books: ” Birds Art Life ” by Kyo Maclear and “The Evening Chorus” by Helen Humphreys

 

 

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“In  Birds Art Life, writer Kyo Maclear embarks on a yearlong, big city adventure chasing after birds, and along the way offers a luminous meditation on the nature of creativity and the quest for a good and meaningful life.”

I recently finished Kyo’s Mclear’s memoir Birds Art Life and I was sad to put it down. It felt as if I was just getting to know someone – someone who shared my passions and the questions I have about the world around me. It was a conversation that I didn’t want to end!

 

“Birds Arts Life” is an astute memoir of connection and discovery, a distilled crystal-like celebration of the small and significant, the imperfect and the struggling, and the liberating effects of keeping your eyes and ears wide open.”

Through four seasons, and guided by a new companion, Kyo discovers the world of birds. These are the birds that pass through our cities and our yards. The birds that float on our lakes and rivers, both the remarkable and the unremarkable. Her words are a refreshing break from the sensational and newsworthy events that seem to shout at us every day.  She reflects on small things that create meaning in our lives – a choice is both bold and honest.

 

 

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“Helen Humphreys ‘The Evening Chorus’ is brilliant evocation of an unforgettable time and place and a natural history of both the war and the human heart.”

The Evening Chorus is a work of fiction that interweaves three compelling stories: James Hunter, who spends the second world war in a POW camp. His young wife Rose who, in James absence falls in love with another man, and James sister Enid who forms a friendship with Rose that alters the course of all of their lives.  Notably, for those interested in birds the character James Hunter is inspired by the real life birdwatcher John Buxton. Buxton, while held captive as a prisoner of war in WWII, studied a family of redstarts and wrote a book about his observations. Today this book is still regarded by many as one of the most comprehensive single-species studies ever undertaken.

The writing throughout The Evening Chorus is beautiful. Rooted in the rhythms and imagery of nature and featuring chapter headings named after various flora and fauna, this novel is moving, meaningful and a pleasure to read.

You can pick up Birds Art Life or The Evening Chorus at your local bookstore or through any of the major on-line retailers. I really loved reading these books and highly recommend them. ENJOY!

 

THE MESSENGER AT FESTIVAL DU FILM VERTE, FRANCE

It is the start of bird migration season, so we are watching the skies with anticipation and hope that our migrating feathered friends make it to their breeding grounds once again. This Sunday  THE MESSENGER,  our award-winning environmental documentary directed by Su Rynard is screening at Festival du Film Vert à Ferney-Voltaire in Voltaire, France. Sally Blake and the Films à Cinq team (our French co-production partners) are wonderful to work with!  Thanks to ARTE France and all our other partners for making this film possible. French subtitled Trailer included in this post.  French synopsis for the film below.    We can all make a difference to help songbirds.  Please spread the word about our film’s message. If you want to see the film or book it for a screening please check out the options and get in touch with us.  Screening and contact options here. 

The Messenger est une enquête innovante qui expose les raisons de la disparition massive des passereaux, et qui suit au plus près les ornithologues et écologistes dans leur mobilisation. Le film embarque les spectateurs pour un magnifique voyage à travers le monde, révélant comment les problèmes que rencontrent les oiseaux entrainent des conséquences accablantes pour notre planète, et pour nous-mêmes.

Take Action information to help songbirds  here. 

 

Die Gotterdammerung – Reason and Mercy

Die Gotterdammerung is the last in Richard Wagner’s cycle of four music dramas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen or The Ring Cycle.

Last year I wrote a short blogpost about The Forest Bird in Wagners Siegfried. This year, I was lucky enough to see the COC production of Die Gotterdammerung, and found myself pondering the role of birds, both in music and in the stories we tell.

 

Like the opera Siegfried, birds are featured once again in Die Gotterdammerung, but this time we meet two ravens called Reason and Mercy. Tragically (this is opera after all) these ravens are the messengers who decree Siegfried’s death. Birds have something to tell us indeed.

 

Screen Shot 2017-02-19 at 5.46.29 PM The raven is perhaps humankinds most storied bird. The mythology of the Haida is based on the epic cycle of stories about the Raven and his various exploits.  One of the best-known of these stories tells how the Raven disguised himself in order to enter the house of the Sky Chief, from whom he stole the sun, moon and stars to give to humankind.

 

Be it stories or music, birds are our long time cultural companions. British composer David Matthews believes that western music inspired by birdsong goes back at least as far as the 16th century. You can read more about his ideas in this essay. Matthews also understands what it means to be losing our birds.

 

 

 “Many of our birds are in decline – the cuckoo among them: fewer people now hear this essential sound of spring. Fortunately we still have blackbirds in great numbers, but we had better take care of them, and our other songbirds, otherwise we shall end up with the silent spring that Rachel Carson warned us of in her famous book of that title. Birds were singing millions of years before we evolved: they were the inventors of music. Maybe our future depends on theirs.”

 

Wise words indeed.

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Gratitude

With gratitude, 2016 was a good year for The Messenger. 2017 will be a challenging year for our environment and the world we live in. We hope that the film will continue to inspire and inform.

Winner: Prix Buffon, Paris Science, Le festival international du film scientifique, 2016

Winner: Special Jury Award, Visions of Nature/Voices of Nature Environmental Film Festival 2016

Special Mention for Best Documentary, CinemAmbiente, Italy 2015

Winner: Best Environmental Film Prize, Festival de l’Oiseau et de la Nature, Abbeville Cedex, France 2016

Winner: Best of Fest, International Wildlife Film Festival Missoula, Montana 2016

Winner: Best Theatrical Feature, International Wildlife Film Festival Missoula, Montana 2016

Nominated: Best Cinematography in a Feature Documentary, Canadian Screen Awards 2016

Nominated: Best Editing in Feature Documentary, Canadian Cinema Editors Award 2016

Nominated: for Dutch IntL Science Film Festival NTR Audience Award & Youth Jury Award, 2016

Winner: Whistleblower Award Cinema Verde Environmental Film & Arts Festival, 2016

Winner: Favourite Documentary Feature, North Bay Film Festival, 2016

Winner: Best Conservation Film, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, 2015

Winner: Top Ten Audience Award, Hot Docs 2015

Recipient of the 2015 Carl Nunn Media and Conservation Award presented by Ontario Nature

 

Now available on itunes in Canada and the USA.

Canada: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/movie/the-messenger/id1177748023

USA. https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-messenger/id1082871787

 

The 6th edition of DREFF – Dominican Republic Environmental Film Festival, Santo Domingo

Can’t say enough good things about Dominican Republic Environmental Film Festival (DREFF).

This was a very different kind of film festival.

DREFF is an initiative of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and the Global Democracy and Development (FUNGLODE) Foundation. Their goal is to promote environmental films and raise the level of public awareness.

 

publico-4They do this by connecting the film a dedicated audience. The Messenger was paired with several high school groups and screened at different locations in Santo Domingo. Teachers had prepared the students for the screening (including assignments) so they were very attentive!  Filmmakers accompanied their films into the classroom, engaging in lively Q&A’s. It’s great to see environmental films reaching these younger audiences and to see these audiences connecting with the material.

The screenings were rewarding, as was the company. All filmmakers stayed in the same hotel, and spent many wonderful evenings talking — exchanging ideas, perspectives and stories from around the globe. Our screening days took us in very different directions, as many filmmakers travelled all over the Island to present their works to a variety of cities, towns and communities. Programming included films from Chile, the Yukon, South Africa, the UK, the USA and more.

 

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Personal Highlights included a walk through the botanical garden accompanied by a local bird guide who pointed out many resident species that I had previously never seen or heard.

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On the last day of the festival we participated in a beach clean-up. Hundreds of people were present, combing through layers of debris, most of which were discarded plastics. The site of all this garbage along the beach was sobering.  Shocking as it seems, recycling programs are rare in Caribbean countries and there is so much waste! (What ever happened to glass bottles and deposits?) And bottled water is such an environmental tragedy on every level).

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While the beach clean-up left us with the feeling that so much work needs to be done, the festival was a shining example of what can be done, and what is being done with positive and tangible impacts.