Director: Donald & Roger Kass

Starring: Peter Berthold, Sergio Coen Tanugi, Andrea Rutigliano & Jonathan Franzen

Running Time: 77 mins

Release date: 14 Nov, 2014 at The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema

Worldwide Gross: N/A

 

 

 

 

Basic Plot:

 

Each year millions of endangered, migratory songbirds are illegally poached and served as delicacies near the Mediterranean Sea. Based on acclaimed author and bird lover Jonathan Franzen’s 2010 personal essay in The New Yorker, Emptying the Skies explores this plight as two filmmakers journey with Andrea, Piero, and Sergio, three bird-lovers on mission for CABS (Committee Against Bird Slaughter). Willingly they trudge into the heart of trapper territory to liberate these feathered victims from captivity. At once a look at environmental injustice and an examination of cultural progression, Emptying the Skies is a documentary that will have you championing these efforts to protect earth’s most delicate composers.

 

Clock Watching? (14 of 20)

 

Emptying the Skies’ examination doesn’t take long to become gripping. And by its end, the film had well evoked a humanely gut-level anger within me. This is cinema as global rousing, film as advocacy and compassion.

 

Observing birds in the wild, flitting and flying, free from man’s grasp, witnessing the stories of the three men and why they risk their lives, and seeing the intense shift of European culture in regard to the traditions of trapping and their culinary ends kept me invested in the film. It even nimbly explored the gray moralities of both the culturally-static trappers, and the progressive activist-vigilantes, showing us which side to root for, but never fully criminalizing the trappers. The film ends up dipping into documentary convention by way of heavy issues-speech and interviews, which doesn’t allow the room for this cinematic work to breathe as such.

 

Oscar Performances? (18 of 20)

 

Dispersed among the film’s raid and interview footage, Andrea, Piero, and Sergio’s personal journeys are documented to paint a picture of why they choose to sacrifice their lives for these birds’ plight. Each has their own strange yet endearing tale: at one point in his past, Andrea raised deer and, in seeking solidarity, lived with them in the woods, eating grass. Piero works on a commune, which compassionately gives its animals free space to roam and live. And Sergio is an investment banker in Italy who spends “downtime” collecting cans and gives the profit to charities. The careful attention of the filmmakers to document these men’s accounts rendered fascinating insights into their motivations, making this a story of not only the birds but of also the humans defending them.

                                                                                                                  

Lights, Camera, Direction? (14 of 20)

 

Using a mixture of interview, real-time footage, and observations of birds, Emptying the Skies weaves quite a thrilling and gorgeous visual tale. The camera’s exploration of these elegant, mysterious birds helped me feel nearer them as fellow creatures of the earth, their casual destruction becoming even more tragic. Yet despite an affecting approach, the film falls prey to common formal elements, leaning heavily on interviews, graphics, and issues-based rhetoric. More scenes showing the birds in the wild or another 30 minutes spent in the cultural milieu of the trappers and activists could’ve really reinforced the film’s already high sense of urgency more cinematically than cuts to Franzen musing.

 

Tell a Friend? (18 of 20)

 

This is a film that demands to be seen if not just for its urgent and shamefully unfamiliar content. Though, ultimately, it does have enough cinema, story, and human-creature drama to keep anyone’s attention for its 77-minute runtime.

 

Again? (8 of 20)

 

I am not usually attracted to films that heavy-handedly tackle social issues, so despite its compelling posture, I don’t see myself revisiting it. It’s done the job ably, stirring me to an angry knowledge of this injustice.

 

Total: 72%

 

Emptying the Skies affectingly documents the injustice being performed against our winged neighbors and the plight of the few out to save them. As a revealing piece of cinema, despite its falling prey to convention, it will certainly urge you to peer upward more often in gratitude and awe.

 

by Colin Stacy