Pelican Dreams, the third feature-length film from the director of The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, will have its first screening in the neighborhood this Thursday at the Exploratorium.
North Beach filmmaker Judy Irving gained national acclaim for Wild Parrots, her 2005 "love story" about the brightly colored, beloved birds that hang out predominantly on the Hill, as well as in Sue Bierman Park in the FiDi. Now, she's back in action with Pelican Dreams, a look at the "flying dinosaurs," as she describes them, that she's been smitten with since she was a kid. The screening starts at 7 pm, and the event is 18 and over, because it's held during the museum's adults-only "After Dark" programming. Admission is $15 ($10 for members), and allows access to the museum from 6–10pm.
Photo: Charlie Rattigan
Pelicans have been "a long-term love and interest of mine," Irving told us. "It’s essentially a valentine to these ancient, charismatic, comical birds. They have this elegant grace when they’re soaring, and they’re incredibly, comically awkward on land. I like that. I can relate to that.” Irving started the pelican project prior to filming Wild Parrots, and that she shot a few rolls in 1998, but put it on hold when the idea for the parrot film flew into her life.
Pelican Dreams (rated G; 80 minutes) opened last October at the Balboa Theatre in the Outer Richmond and played for about six months in 100 cities, said Irving. Here in the Bay Area, it hit art houses in Berkeley, San Jose, San Rafael and Sebastopol, but never came to North Beach. "This is the first chance for folks in the neighborhood to see it at a walking-distance theater," she said.
"I’ve discovered, too, after making it and getting it out there, [pelicans are] a favorite bird of a lot of people," said Irving. "Brown pelicans fly along all three of our coasts: East Coast, Gulf Coast and West Coast. People learn a lot more about them when they see the movie." Of course, those who live on the Hill or near the Embarcadero are lucky enough to see pelicans soaring around the northeast waterfront all the time. "Sometimes they go fairly high, and fly right over our house on the Greenwich steps," said Irving. "You see them every day, if you’re looking."
Photo: Judy Irving
The film stars two birds: Morro, named after Morro Bay, where he's from, and Gigi, named for the Golden Gate Bridge, where she was found. The film opens with Gigi. "She was very hungry and thin and was weak," Irving said. "She landed on the bridge because she couldn’t make the flight across the Golden Gate. But there’s good news in her story: She got rescued, and her rehabilitation is part of the storyline." Morro, a bird with an injured wing, made an appearance at the screening in San Luis Obispo. "It was electric inside the theater," Irving recalls. "Everybody was mesmerized by the bird."
Photo: Stuart Jones
While there will be no birds at the Exploratorium screening, Irving encourages neighbors to turn out because "it’s just more fun to see it on the big screen, in my opinion. And you can ask whatever questions you want about how [the film was] made." She noted that the Q&A portion of the evening "usually ends up being an interesting discussion about pelicans and climate change," as well as documentary filmmaking. Also on hand for questions will be Bruce Kaphan, the film's composer, and Laurie Harvey, an avian ecologist and pelican expert.
