Birdpeople

This “making of” of the spectacular nature documentary WINGED MIGRATION (2001, Jacques Perrin) shows how twenty people devoted four years of their lives to raising the migratory birds that are followed during migration in this film. The recording technique was unique: a light motorised glider equipped with a camera flew alongside the birds, so the spectator can see the world from a bird's-eye view. To familiarise the birds with the small sailplane and people, they were surrounded by human noises from the moment they were able to hear – when they were still inside the egg. When the chicks hatch, they consider the first being they see, in this case the caretaker, as their parent: they are imprinted. A group of biologists, dropouts and adventurers explains how they were cut off from the outside world for years and developed a close bond with the geese, swans, ostriches and pelicans in the Bois-Roger in Normandy. “Here, I've cured myself of all human instincts like shame, dishonesty and nervousness,” one of the caretakers says. A female colleague learned from the birds how to feel things directly, and when she returned to society, her uncompromising attitude was seen as rigid.