BIRDS

Director David Hinton and choreographer Yolande Snaith have created an extraordinary dance film by re-editing nature footage of birds. Accompanied by a soundtrack of bird sounds and sporadic rhythmical music, birds of every size and color run, jump and fly every which way. Blue birds jump in circles around green ones, strange ducks repeatedly toss back their heads, an owl clumsily leaps across a field and water fowl run upright across the water. Two large birds of prey are entwined in the sky by one leg and turn around like the sails of a windmill. The makers collected shots of unusual bird movements, in addition to the more common images of a hopping bird or a large flock of birds suddenly changing course. By using repetition and variation, they have created a modern and fascinating dance from the beauty of the nature shots.