Life List
By John Oak Dalton • Feb 12th, 2006 • Category: DocumentaryDirector Tom Dunlap turns an eye on birdwatching culture in this amiable short documentary.
We find that the birdwatching world is split between two camps; those that do it for enjoyment, and those that are trying to form a “life list,” tallying as many different kinds of birds as possible in competition with other birdwatchers.
What I like about Dunlap’s storytelling is that he doesn’t judge the people he is showcasing, but presents the material with an open mind. The birdwatching culture seems to represent pretty much any other fandom, with people who are just in it for the hobbyist interest to people who seem to be, to put it kindly, more deeply rooted in the world.
Dunlap presents a nice mix of tales, and is sure-footed with his editing of what was probably a lot of material. The shooting is solid overall, though a bit uneven in spots, which I might attribute to taking place across several states and a over a period of time.
Dunlap does a nice job with production design and subject matter, and I would look for more work from this filmmaker.
Three stars.
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John Oak Dalton is a Community Television Station Manager by day, and a DIY acolyte by night. In the 80s he made Super-8 movies and his own basement mix tapes. In the 90s he hosted a cable-access show and made his own zines and minicomics. In the 21st Century he began working with grassroots video and microcinema and writing b-movies, and has more than a dozen projects on the shelf, on screen, in development, or in production.
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