One of the first film productions that came out of our Moskitia, Honduras project was made by Denise Richards of Dog's Life Productions, Free Flight. We had barely started the project when she jumped right in to document our efforts, knowing that something important was a foot and a wing. She rented a broken down truck, hired translator who struggled to translate, and got wet and muddy along with the rest of us.
Denise Richards getting a little help crossing a creek on our way to study a wild macaw nest
Because she came so early in this project, she was able to capture how urgent the problem was and how powerless we felt. So many birds were poached and the country and region was reeling from corruption, violence, and harm caused by special interest groups. Despite this the film captures the beauty and hope of what we might do together. Free Flight has been shown in many localities and has won awards, and we are delighted to have it be the first film we will show at our Parrot Holiday Party and Fundraiser on December 10 in Manhattan, NY. Below is a brief segment of that documentary, and the official trailer is here.
The next film we will show at our Parrot Party is Yochi. This short film highlights the day to day struggles of the people in the Americas who are a mix: those loving their birds, to death, and those who cherish them to life, and what leads some of them to take birds illegally from their wild nests and families to sell in the domestic international trade. The film focuses on fictional brothers, both suffering from tragic loss and life’s challenges. One chooses at first to protect the birds, the other poaches them, and then love surprises them both. This film too is making the film festival circuits and you can find out more about the film and the wise and talented producers here, and watch the trailer here.
The final film is an original screening for a newly released documentary, Poachers and Protectors, financed by USFWS and filmed and edited by Christi Lowe Productions. Like Yochi, it shows the lives of those who take birds, and those protect them, and how there perhaps is not much difference ultimately between them. This film was made at our Moskitia project, and by comparing it to Free Flight, the audience can see the development of our Moskitia project over seven years. Many lives have been nurtured and saved, and to those that have survived, the future is still tenuous. The film crew is shown in the first trailer below, and the documentary trailer is below that.
Our hope by experiencing these films together during our Parrot Party and Fundraiser, we make sure that we build a future for all, whether poacher, protector, producer, parrot, or partier.
Please join us at the party, and if you can’t attend, you can support the cause of nurturing the many and the future in the very specific way of being a protector of parrots and the human communities near where they fly free. We love your yo!
We hope by becoming part of our work, you will find what you have been looking for (music video of our 2nd year in La Moskitia).