Birdland: The Central Park Effect

All birders and in fact all nature-lovers will enjoy watching The Central Park Effect, which takes us swiftly through 4 seasons of bird-watching in Central Park New York - much of the film focused on the birds themselves and a small cadre of devoted bird-watchers who roam the park, often led by a stalwart guide, Star Sapphire, a true New York character, smart, obsessed with her little niche of life, strong, independent, and surprisingly open about the cancer she suffers from. There's some background information as filmmaker J. Kimball talks to a few experts, from Cornell and elsewhere, about migration patterns and why CP is a major stopover from migrating birds. All that said, I don't think nonbirders will care much for this film as it's not a great narrative documentary by any stretch. Kimball gives the film a shape by demarcating the 4 seasons - we go from spring to spring, actually, for an upbeat ending as the songbirds return - but there's no narrative tension or conflict and no sharp focus on any one character or small set of characters, elements that life documentaries like this above the level of nature special and into real storytelling. There's also, I found, too much time spent interviewing various birders (notably, J. Franzen) about their passion for birds - point made, and made again - and too much use of a musical soundtrack, while what most of us would want is the simple sound of birds and of the soft conversations of the birders. So, not a film for everyone, but for those of us who do care about birds it was a pleasure to watch and it succeeds in the way Kimball probably wants - made me want to get outdoors.