kibler_rebecca_kryst The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill was one of those most amazing films I have seen at the Nuart in Los Angeles. I saw this film with my father. who has had parrots for as long as i can remember. I may be partial to this film because of my bringing up. it just reminded me of visiting my family. It had everything i needed. I felt a strong connection with the entirety of this film. i absolutely loved the personal story telling. The connection to the parrots and the house. And it did not hurt to see it end in a love story. All in all i just really want to live in a secluded house with wild parrots all around. I would and i do suggest this movie to my friends even to film profressor's at SMC.

grover-9 Just saw the TV premier of this modestly-distributed movie and was delighted. Has anyone else noticed that the parrots really did more for Mark Bittner than he did for them? They changed his life in so many ways, and all for the better. There are many lessons to be learned from the movie, which is one of the few that left me both cheering and crying when it ended. I wish only the best for all, both human and avian, involved in its making.P. S. Those who previously submitted reviews to this site and saw the movie as an attempt to make Bittner appear a victim in any way certainly missed the point.

ejavignon I just finished watching the DVD. We have flocks of the same birds down here in Southern California that are always fun to watch in the palm trees (I think that Mark Bittner was right in saying that these are monkeys more than they are birds). I never knew much about them; I just assumed they were migratory flocks from Mexico. The way this film took a simple story--an eccentric with a thing for wild parrots--and wove it into a larger lesson about existing in a universe that is bigger than any of us as individuals, was masterful. This is not a documentary about wildlife as much as it is a parable about our connection with everything that surrounds us. I am normally a cynic, but I found this film to be very moving. If only more people were able to slow down and feed the birds.

Ed Uyeshima At first, I wasn't terribly keen about seeing this documentary about a flock of wild South American parrots even though it takes place in my city, San Francisco. The trailer, which I saw in the movie theater earlier this year and is included as an extra in the DVD, made it seem like one of those quirky stories about a lonely eccentric who takes care of birds. However, now that I have seen it, I can say it is a genuinely beguiling, even uplifting film that will surprise you with its charm and poignancy. Over the course of 83 minutes, local documentary filmmaker Judy Irving accurately conveys the heart and soul of Mark Bittner, a middle-aged, pony-tailed hippie who found his calling over a decade ago in taking care of over forty of these colorful birds from his ramshackle cottage on Telegraph Hill.Bittner's story is familiar – having dreams of becoming a rock musician, he moved to San Francisco in the 1970's but could never find a job to suit his free spirit. He is not the stereotypical homeless slacker, at least as portrayed by Hollywood, but an eloquent, obviously sensitive man who doesn't easily share his feelings with others except with the parrots he has come to know and name. What Irving has done particularly well is not portray Bittner as a selfless savior of these birds but as a realist who respects the freedom the wild birds need and tend to them when they are ill or injured. In fact, according to a city official interviewed in the film, environmentalists want them removed, even destroyed, as they are not a native species.Bittner, on the other hand, knows how the birds have adapted naturally to the cold climate of Northern California and continue to thrive in such an anomalous, urban landscape. The film does not shy away from the tragedy inevitable with wildlife, namely predators like hawks who hover above the city and perhaps more destructively, the ignorance of humans. Bittner himself speaks candidly about the trap of anthropomorphism, i.e., attributing human characteristics to the parrots, especially given the all-too-human penchant to project feelings onto animals. This becomes challenging to the viewer as well since what stays in the memory are the beautiful close-ups of the parrots and their obviously loving interactions with him. The birds - among them, Mingus, Pushkin, Tupelo, Picasso, Sophie - have individual stories that indeed humanize them to some degree, and the most interesting is the plight of Connor, the only blue-crown parrot among the cherry-crowns and consequently the resident outsider.What makes him and the film so noteworthy, however, is the fact that contrived sentimentality is averted in favor of a more journalistic approach to this highly personal story. The chief example of this is when the film documents a challenging development - the property owners have to evict Bittner from the cottage as part of a major renovation. Instead of being portrayed as villains, the obviously well-to-do owners are shown to be good, realistic people who have allowed Bittner to stay on the property for three years without rent. Irving also provides a lot of nice contextual touches with shots of Bittner in North Beach, the dramatic visual and audio contrast between the parrots and the soaring Blue Angels, and interviews with people who share "urban legends" about the origin of the parrots. I particularly like the establishing shot of the film when a particularly cynical inquisitor questions Bittner about how wild the parrots could be since they interact so easily with him. Irving and Bittner should be rightly proud of this heartfelt film.The DVD package has loads of extras targeted to those enthralled by Bittner's story, including most importantly, a seven-minute update on the parrots. There are seven deleted scenes, all understandably excised, but they nonetheless provide additional insight into Bittner's story as well as the parrots themselves. One interesting excerpt is a 14-minute interview with a woman who took care of the flock prior to Bittner and illustrating how the birds drew people from different walks of life. Four shorts are also included – a more in-depth profile of Connor, a follow-up report on Mingus at the Oasis Sanctuary in Phoenix, a featurette on California quails in the Presidio, and almost half an hour of Bittner's own home movies, which I assume is the basis of the film. There is even a music video of pianist-vocalist Roberta Fabiano signing a forlorn paean to the parrots. "Dogen, Connor and Tupelo".