Filmmaker Judy Irving of Telegraph Hill has discovered where the wild things are: Everywhere.
She'll be talking about the wild in its various forms, and showing clips and some new raw film footage, tonight at "Parrots, Pelicans, and People: Oh My!" from 5:30–8:30pm at the Aquarium of the Bay at Pier 39 ($10).
“What is the wild, where is the wild and why do we need the wild in our lives?” are some of the questions she'll ask, Irving told us. "It's about wilderness all the way from remote wilderness to your own backyards. It includes not only wild animals and wild places, but also wild people.”
"I thought people weren’t part of nature and we ruined it all of the time; let’s keep people out of it," Irving told us. "I felt that way 40 years ago, and I don’t feel that way now." She added, "The series of clips basically covers 40 years of filmmaking, starting in the wilds of remote Alaska and quickly circling around to my home base for the past 15 years, the North Beach/Telegraph Hill area."
Irving, of course, is the chronicler of The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, a film about the flock of colorful, quirky and clamorous parrots that regularly roost from Telegraph Hill down to Sue Bierman Park. Her latest films, Pelican Dreams and Cormorants in the Crosshairs, move on to look at other species, but with the same curiosity and insight.
Irving says of cormorants, "I think people are going to really love to see what astonishing swimmers they are under water. It’s like they’re flying under water. I don’t know how they do it. They’re birds. They’re hunting. It’s really neat.” She added, "I’ve been swimming in the Bay 30 years and I’ve seen cormorants on the surface of course ... but I had no idea what great athletes they were underwater."
Photo: Charlie Rattigan
Other clips will come from 19 Arrests, No Convictions, about George Farnsworth, the oldest man to do the Alcatraz swim on New Year's Day. Irving got to know him at the South End Rowing Club at Aquatic Park and filmed him over eight years.
The film circles back to Irving's encounters with wildlife here in the city. "There’s actually brand new footage that I just shot about a week-and-a-half ago at our house up on Telegraph Hill featuring two rescue parrots from the wild flock that Mark and I are taking care of," she said.
It's important to recognize wildlife for several reasons, Irving said. First, seeing animals as individuals and not just as groups of creatures gives you a better understanding of the similarities between humans and animals: "Curiosity, fear, ability to learn, all kinds of things," she said. "When you focus on a single animal for a long time, you tend to learn so much more than if you’re just doing an overview."
Irving with Gigi, one of the subjects of Pelican Dreams. (Photo: Mark Bittner)
Also, Irving noted, "We’re not alone. There’s a lot of loneliness in cities, and depression. If you look up, or look around, we’re just surrounded by all kinds of wild energy or wild creatures we normally don’t notice.” She added, "The more you focus and the more you slow down and look around and enjoy what’s there, it’s just fun, and enlarges the view of what it means to be alive.”
