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By Dawn Watson
Documentary filmmaker Su Rynard isn’t an ornithologist. She’s not even an avian expert. She’s just an average person who noticed that the songbirds she loved to listen to and watch outside her window had somehow disappeared.
At first, she thought it was her. Maybe she was too busy to notice. Maybe the orioles, swallows, tanagers, thrashers and warblers had found a new watering hole. Maybe she was searching for the winged endothermic vertebrates at inopportune times. Or, perhaps they really were just gone.
Ms. Rynard set out to find the reason why she could no longer hear the songbirds sing. The truth was troubling.
“I dug a little deeper and discovered that it wasn’t me,” the Canada-based director says. “All around the globe, birds are disappearing and the rate of this loss is faster than at any other time in human history. In terms of songbirds, we have half the number today compared to the 1960s.”
Her award-winning film, “The Messenger,” which features stunning bird photography and compelling interviews with bird experts, ecologists and avian enthusiasts, will screen at the Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival’s Spring Docs Day on Sunday, April 17. The full-length feature tells the story of what has happed to our imperiled feathered visitors and why their fate matters to all of humankind.
“‘Could we live without birds?’ This is one of the questions the film asks,” Ms. Rynard reports. “Birds do jobs that we need done. They pollinate, they disperse seeds, and they eat bugs, which helps agriculture enormously.”
In “The Messenger,” she sets out to explore the complex human relationship to the natural world. The visually stunning film focuses on how humans rely on birds, and their necessity for our own survival.
“In our modern scientific world we now know that birds are indicators species, and this is because of their sensitivity to environmental conditions,” says Ms. Rynard. “As we humans rely on a healthy functioning eco-system … the fate of the songbird is linked to our own.”
“The Messenger” is one of three films that will screen on Sunday, April 17, from noon to 7 p.m. at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. The other two docs on the slate will be “The Internet Cat Video Festival,” featuring a selection of the best of humorous cat cuteness on the Internet, and “The Champions,” an inspirational story about the pit bulls rescued from the brutal fighting ring of former Atlanta Falcons’ star quarterback Michael Vick.
The springtime mini-festival, a first for Take 2, is all about “celebrating the joy of spring and all living things, spotlighting our most beloved companions, be they cats, dogs, birds or horses,” says festival Founder and Executive Director Jacqui Lofaro. The three documentary films are meant not just to bring animal-themed entertainment to the East End, but also to draw the entire East End together, she says.
A daylong silent auction, which will include a number of goods and services offered by local merchants, will be held in conjunction with the screenings. Additionally, the Spring Docs Day will be co-presented along with the Eastern Long Island Audubon Society, the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation, the South Fork Natural History Museum, the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, and pet wellness advocate Tracie Hotchner, who is an NPR pet radio host and founder of the Dog Film Festival. Jane Gill of Saunders & Associates is sponsoring the program.
“It’s going to be a big community event with something for everyone who is an animal lover,” says Ms. Lofaro. The animal-themed day does feature some challenging material but overall the inspirational docs spread the message of hope, she adds.
“There’s enough bad news in the world. Let’s celebrate some good news, through documentary.”
The Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival’s Spring Docs Day will be held on Sunday, April 17, at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. The first film to screen will be “The Internet Cat Video Festival,” curated by Will Braden, at 1 p.m. Next up will be “The Champions,” directed by Darcy Dennett, at 3 p.m. The final film of the day will be “The Messenger,” directed by Su Rynard, which will screen at 5:30 p.m. Single film admission is $10 for children, $13 for seniors and $15 for adults. An all-day pass is $35. Learn more at ht2ff.com.
