Pelican Dreams (2014)

Judy Irving ("The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill") follows a wayward California pelican from her "arrest" on the Golden Gate Bridge into care at a rehab facility and explores nesting ... See full summary »

Director:

Judy Irving

Writer:

Judy Irving

Stars:

Mark Bittner, Laura Corsiglia, Jacky Douglas

Cast

Credited cast:
Mark Bittner	...	Himself
Laura Corsiglia	...	Herself
Jacky Douglas	...	Herself
Laurie Harvey	...	Herself
Monte Merrick	...	Himelf
Bill Nicholson	...	Himself
Dani Nicholson	...	Herself

Storyline

Judy Irving ("The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill") follows a wayward California pelican from her "arrest" on the Golden Gate Bridge into care at a rehab facility and explores nesting grounds, Pacific coast migration and survival challenges.

---

Plot Keywords:

f rated | 

---

Taglines:

A bird of a different feather

---

Genres:

Documentary

---

Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 November 2014 (USA)

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pelican Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Be sure to stay through the closing credits so you catch the joke at the end: 'so a pelican walks into a bar...'

User Reviews

The Life of a California Brown Pelican can be very, very good or...

We saw this film a couple of weeks ago thanks to the San Jose Camera Cinema Club. The filmmaker, Judy Irving ("The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill") was in attendance. After the film screened, Irving said she'd long wanted to make a documentary about California Brown Pelicans because they'd fascinated her as a child and continued to do so into adulthood. What she did not have was a hook. She was diverted by the wild parrots that live around San Francisco's Telegraph Hill and made a very successful film about them. So now she was an avian documentary filmmaker.

Then an exhausted, dehydrated pelican to be named Gigi landed on San Francisco's Golden Gate (GG, get it?) bridge and the hook was set. "Pelican Dreams" revolves around Gigi's rehabilitation in the hands of some very caring people. It has many interludes to tell the rich story of the California Brown Pelican. For example, they almost went extinct because their nesting area on Santa Barbara Island off the California coast was poisoned by DDT runoff from a Los Angeles industrial firm. The DDT weakened the eggshells and of 1000 eggs one year, 999 were crushed under the weight of the parent. One entire year's crop of fledglings vanished.

Things have gotten much better for the pelicans since then. Brown pelicans from Baja California in Mexico have migrated north and repopulated the flocks in the Western US. However, wherever bird and man meet, it's often bad for bird. "Pelican Dreams" takes you through a lot of this in detail.

The movie is fascinating. If it has one fault, it's long for the subject matter, which reflects the filmmaker's fascination with the subject. However, the cinematography includes shots of pelicans' first flights and high-speed film clips of pelicans diving into the ocean to catch fish in their pouches. You likely won't see such wonders in another movie.