Here are fours films about bird life, research and their aerial travel that make us reflect on our own existence ... below.
From the Labocine September Issue "Shuttles & Migrations"
2015 | Netherlands | Jan Van Ijken​
Short film about “murmurations”: the mysterious flights of the Common Starling. It is still unknown how the thousands of birds are able to fly in such dense swarms without colliding. Every night the starlings gather at dusk to perform their stunning air show.
Because of the relatively warm winter of 2014/2015, the starlings stayed in the Netherlands instead of migrating southwards. This gave filmmaker Jan van IJken the opportunity to film one of the most spectacular and amazing natural phenomena on earth.
2013 | Iraq | Najwan Ali, Medoo Ali, Mohammad Jaafarn, Fatima Sah Writer Najwan Ali, Yaers Kream
Nesma is at odds with the world around her since her father's death. She escapes to the rooftops where she secretley cares for her late father's birds against the knowledge of her mother and competing against the boy on the opposite rooftop. Now Nesma must face even bigger challenges as she enters womanhood.
2013, Poland, Aniela Gabryel
The singular beauty of wild nature is hard to understand. Working in thickets on a thin strip of land between the sea and the lake, bird researchers try to at least describe it setting off on their expeditions regardless of bad weather and difficult conditions.
2014 | Germany | Ulu Braun
Quo vadis, bird? Ulu Braun`s film BIRDS looks at the life of birds in urban habitats. They apply their instinctive behaviour to the developed environment. What role do humans play therein? Bags and umbrellas become bushes, buildings become monoliths and people become organisms. The birds are forced to come to terms with a world that they are not responsible for.
Nesma's Birds