Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Two Little Gems: Movies I Loved

BIRDS OF PASSAGE 

The La Costa Film Festival, in its fourth year the fall of 2016, was right in my own backyard so I promised myself I'd go this year and soak up some of the indie beauties and documentaries typically featured at festival venues.  My daughter, Amy, who shares my passion, joined me on the Sunday afternoon closing day. We had no trouble choosing two films that appealed to both of us -- Birds of Passage, a poignant story about the friendship between two girls, one disabled, and Pickle, a quirky documentary about a married couple with an odd assortment of rescue animals. Both were little gems for completely different reasons.



In the Belgian film (French subtitles), Birds of Passage, by Yves and Olivier Ringer, ten-year-old Cathy receives a fertilized duck egg in a tiny wood incubator for her birthday. Her dad explains that she will be the first person the duckling sees when he hatches out, so he'll think she's his mother. Cathy's friend, Margaux, confined to a wheelchair, attends Cathy's birthday party and hides in Cathy's bedroom during one of the games. In a surprise twist, the yellow duckling cracks through its shell and sees Margaux first. Cathy tells her she's now the mom and should take him home, but Margaux's parents are having none of it. They are already stressed caring for a child with special needs.

Discouraged but not defeated, the girls decide they will take the duckling to an island where he can join dozens of ducks swimming in the water at the end of a long land mass. Margaux sits in her wheelchair with the duckling as they cross a river in a small boat. On land, she sinks into a cart attached to Cathy's bike so they can wheel along dirt trails to reach their destination. Like a heavenly body, the pastoral setting wraps them in a cocoon of hope and safe keeping. At one point, they abandon the bike to enter the water with their precious charge while frantic parents back home report them missing and a search party sets out to find them.

Told from Cathy's point of view, the film captures the magical thinking of ten-year-old girls who wear blinders to the stigma and limitations associated with handicapped people. Without preaching, this message underscores every scene to give the story wings. From the urban apartments where they live to the sunlit countryside where they travel, Cathy and Margaux bond to a higher calling, to deliver their darling duckling to a community of feathered friends, so he can float in peace and harmony all day long.


Birds of Passage was named Best Film at the 2015 Montreal International Children's Film Festival.


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The second film is a documentary by Amy Nicholson titled Pickle, about an engaging couple, Debbie and Tom, who collect an odd assortment of animals with bizarre ailments on their chicken farm.  Rescue animals include a variety of fowl, i.e. a hen with bumble leg (staph infection), a deformed fish from the river, and a damaged possum from the highway.  



In the case of Pickle, the fish, well...he was in quite a pickle because he had a fish head and tail, but no body -- a condition called stump body. After Tom caught this little guy, he wanted to throw him back in the water, but Debbie begged him to keep the good natured Pickle. Tom propped Pickle up with a piece of sponge so he could live in an aquarium and eat the food they dropped to him

The possum was injured and diseased when they brought him home, so Tom built a custom skateboard that allowed him to cruise around the house. In addition to these creatures, various fowl and ducks found their way to the farm but, unfortunately, many provided food for predators. The sweet little quail were an especially sad loss.  


Sitting on a white love seat in a luxurious home, decorated white on white, the couple shares an attachment and whimsical appreciation for their menagerie, accepting that most animals live short lives. Tom's dry sense of humor and Debbie's winsome personality and warmth give the homespun tales a sense of ying and yang that makes for irresistible storytelling. The film looks at the value we place on animals and the lengths we go to for their benefit.   

Total running time is 15 minutes: Pickle

A film by Amy Nicholson, the documentary received a total of 12 awards on the festival circuit including a Grand Jury Prize at the Florida Film Festival that qualified it for Oscar consideration. 



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