It's virtually impossible to get my child to sit still for a documentary, but he sat still for THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL. There's something fascinating about a guy whose entire life revolves around these little, displaced creatures.
PARROTS is about a flock of birds that somehow got loose in San Francisco and have managed to create a self-sustaining, er, flock in an environment that many folks think is too inhospitable for them. It's also about the guy who cares for them, sort've an SF version of The Dude who, almost by accident, has turned himself into one of the world's authorities on parrot behavior. You see, explains an ornithologist at the San Francisco Zoo, it's virtually impossible to observe parrots in the jungle, so The SF Dude is in a unique position to add to the world's body of knowledge on this particular subject.
It's interesting stuff, and it doesn't fall prey to the temptation to anthropomorphize the birds. They are what they are, and the SF Dude appreciates them for that. Through him, we come to do the same. It worked for my boy, and it worked for me.
2 comments:
Interesting... How old is your child? I'm a preschool teacher and depending on how old your child is it might be something worth exploring with the kids in my class.
He's six. If you do choose to show all or part of this film to your students, I'd be fascinated to hear how they respond to it!
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