Fri., Mar. 4, 2005 12:00 AM PST
Mark Bittner is the Dr. Dolittle of San Francisco. And this lovingly made documentary about his relationship with a flock of wild parrots is this year's minor-key
Winged Migration. A free-spirited and sometimes homeless musician, Bittner began noticing the little green birds--not native and more than a few thousand miles out of their South American element--as they congregated in the trees near his tiny Telegraph Hill dwelling.
He began to feed them, take care of the sick ones, give them names based on their distinctive markings and study them intently. Never domesticating the birds (not counting the one that demanded to live indoors), Bittner's journey became a spiritual one. Thanks to some surprising turns of events that turn the doc from a simple Discovery Channel special into something humorous, bittersweet and even grief-stricken, audiences will find themselves loving the screeching feral creatures as much as their on-camera human friend does.
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