Movies

Last night Anna and I went to watch The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill at the La Paloma theatre in Encinitas. Great movie, great theatre. We snuck some spring rolls from Siamese Basil into the show, but the concessions prices were quite reasonable. I love the building. It is sort of a roaring 20’s spanish style with a good mix of rustic wood and tile.

What about the parrots? While the movie sometimes has a “home movie” feel (the footage spans a number of years and different sources), it works quite well. It details the flock of wild parrots that live around Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, mainly a few different birds by showing their different personalities and quirks. It also focuses on Mark Bittner. Mark is one of those people that is uncompromising in their time. He took odd jobs or lived on the streets for years rather than settle into something he didn’t like. He ended up living in telegraph hill and following the parrot flock for many years. Making friends with some of them, caring for them, and eventually logging and researching their activities. This became almost a full time job, and eventually something had to give. You will probably come out of the movie with a little more compassion for animals, and people.

–

We also watched The Story of the Weeping Camel. Done with the help of National Geographic World Films, it is a documentary that takes the shape of a great story. In the harsh Gobi desert of Mongolia, a family of herders is faced with a problem. One of their camels has had a hard delivery and rejects the white calf. While they try to feed the calf on their own, the family needs the mother to take the calf for it to survive. The family is desperate and sends for a violin player to take part in a ceremony to try to get the mother to take the calf. The movie is well filmed and shows a lot of the modern day changes that traditional peoples are going through. We both enjoyed it the movie a lot.