For Release: May 14 , 2007
The next edition of Independent Lens ha s everything a good story needs: a beautiful city , p arrots , r edemption and t rue love. "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill , " a surprise critical and box-office hit, airs Tuesday, May 29 at 9 /8 p.m. C T on KET2 and Monday, June 4 at 10/9 p.m. CT on KET1.
"The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" is about Mark Bittner, a formerly homeless street musician in San Francisco, and a flock of wild green-and-red parrots that mysteriously appear outside a cottage on Telegraph Hill. Bittner falls in with the flock as he searches for meaning in his life, unaware that the wild parrots will do more for him than eat his sunflower seeds . The film celebrates urban wildness -- bohemian and avian -- and links the parrots' antics to human behavior.
Although he is no scientist, Bittner becomes something of an avian expert as he consults local birders and feeds, names, studies and protects the cherry-headed conures -- escaped pets who have begun to breed in the wilds of the city.
Parrot "stars" include Connor, the lonely blue-crowned conure, ostracized by the cherry-heads; Picasso and Sophie, an affectionate couple who love to cuddle; Pushkin, a single father who raises three babies on his own; and Mingus, a cherry-headed conure who tries to join the flock, but, hobbled by a crippled leg, comes to live with Bittner in his house instead.
The film culminates with Bittner's race to save the parrots when his home (and that of some of the parrots) is threatened. Meanwhile, his own quest for survival and companionship uncannily parallels that of his birds. In the film's climactic ending Bittner does find the meaning he sought -- though no one could have predicted the surprising form in which it comes.
Independent Lens "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" is a produced by Judy Irving and presented by I ndependent Television Service. More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.