S.L.I.F.F. Review: ‘Chasing Birds’

Travis:

I enjoyed watching this film, but I probably giving it a better rating than it truly deserves. At a convieniently short 54 minutes in length, ‘Chasing Birds’ feels a little more like reality TV than it feels like a true documentary. This, surprisingly, ends up becoming part of the reason it’s such an oddly entertaining experience.

Greg Woodland takes us on a journey with him as we follow a handful of teams participating in the Twitch-A-Thon, an annual event in Australia where ornithological enthusiasts, or “twitchers” as they are known, set out to compete against each other. The idea is that these teams of four each have 24 hours to spot, identify and confirm the most number of bird species they can in the allotted time. There are no judges, the teams are on the honor system, but 3 out of 4 team members must confirm the sighting for it to count. Twitchers are truly serious about their “sport”, as we learn…

‘Chasing Birds’ follows the teams as best it can, but we find how seriously the twitchers take the competition as the camerman and crew are constantly being called out for being noisy, running out in front of the team, etc, etc, etc. These are serious birdwatchers and it’s as though the film crew is being given a great privilege by being there. It’s enjoyable to watch the twitchers drive around, drinking beer (yep, you heard me right) and frantically searching for bird species to add to their list. These bird-nerds are REALLY into what they do and the film is entirely about them, as we rarely get to see any actual birds as an audience. We are frequently given an illustration of the birds the teams spot, but the subjects under the microscope in this “nature” film are the twitchers.

[Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5]