.jeri.

I had always heard about this documentary and thought it sounded intriguing, so while I was doing some data entry, I figured, why not try it - it's a documentary, so it'll be pretty quiet, right? I forgot how much noise birds can make, but thankfully they weren't audible the entire movie, which is a documentary about a flock of non-native parrots who live in the Bay area and the man who tended to them for quite some time. His name is Mark, and he is an interesting guy, who is called a modern-day Saint Francis because of his calling. He claims that the birds do not belong to them, yet watches after them, befriends them, knows them all by name, and even keeps a database of them.

It was great to listen to Mark talk about the birds and how he ended up in his situation. He seemed not to have had a particular direction in life but to follow where life leads, and it led him to a period of homelessness, which from his conversation, almost didn't even sound like homelessness. It sounded as if he stayed where he could, and was fine with it, although I'm sure there must have been depressing moments. At one point, the documentarian asks him what differentiates him from the crazy pigeon lady, and he actually has to stop and consider for quite a while, and doesn't have a good answer. I would like to have heard more about his personal struggles than those of the parrots. Mark does share the spotlight with the parrots, but I would have given him even more, and maybe even lengthened the short run-time in order to do so.

While the stories of the birds are interesting, the movie itself is plainly told and perhaps doesn't move as much as it could. I kept feeling as if it would tell more of a story, but really, it acquaints us with Mark and the birds, then shows him as he takes his leave from them. There is one little surprise at the end, which made hm seem a little more dynamic, but overall, it was a nice little movie with very little punch to it: nice way to spend an afternoon, but not life-altering.