It doesn’t escape all the hippy-dippy possibilities of its subject matter, but “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” undeniably creates a pleasing little urban haven.
This documentary is a San Francisco treat, a look at a flock of parrots that live around the gentrifying bohemian neighborhood of Telegraph Hill. At the center of the flock is a man, Mark Bittner, the parrots’ human friend and chronicler.
Bittner grew up in Washington state, and gravitated to San Francisco to pursue musical dreams. They didn’t pan out, and he ended up living on the streets for 15 years.
Bright and well-spoken, with the obligatory gray ponytail, Bittner is our guide to the birds, who number around 50. He carefully gained their trust some years ago, and now has a regular regimen of feeding, observing, and sometimes medically repairing them.
The parrots – actually, cherry-headed conures, if you want to get technical about it – were probably released as pets long ago. But nobody actually knows when or how the flock began. (Some amusing urban legends are shared about this.)
Bittner, however, can tell us practically everything else about them. He can tell the birds apart, he’s named them, and he’s identified specific personality traits.
He’s clearly doing quite a bit of projecting about his feathered friends; he’ll go into detail about love stories between birds, with daft conjecture about flirty French girls and older lovers.
This is a man with a flimsy hold on reality, perhaps, but the same could be said for many of us. And his obsessions certainly seem gentle and harmless. If St. Francis popped up in today’s world, people would probably snicker at him, too.
The movie gets a bit of story when Bittner’s rent-free squatting rights are threatened. Where will he go, and what will become of Mingus, Picasso, Connor, and the other birds?
Filmmaker Judy Irving interviews other people in the vicinity, and treats Bittner with great affection. She also reinforces San Francisco’s image of itself as a kind of safety zone for oddballs and dreamers. (The movie’s become a word-of-mouth cult hit in the Bay Area.) The stairway winding up Telegraph Hill looks like a fairytale pathway leading to some marvelous secret place full of magical creatures. Which, as the film demonstrates, is exactly what it is.
Mark Bittner and a couple of his charges in “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.”
“The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” HHH
Feel good: A documentary about Mark Bittner, a formerly homeless man who tends a flock of wild parrots (probably released pets) in San Francisco. It’s a little hippy-dippy, but it creates a nice little urban haven.
Rated: G
Now showing: Varsity.
“The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” HHH
Feel good: A documentary about Mark Bittner, a formerly homeless man who tends a flock of wild parrots (probably released pets) in San Francisco. It’s a little hippy-dippy, but it creates a nice little urban haven.
Rated: G
Now showing: Varsity.
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