The School of Communications instructor directed and produced an award-winning documentary that highlights the issue of bird poaching in Europe. Following this month’s U.S. theatrical premiere in New York City, the film will be screened in other select cities across the country.
The film is based on a New Yorker article by Jonathan Frazen, an American novelist and essayist. It focuses on the illegal hunting and poaching of birds in Europe and the individuals who are risking their lives to stop it.
In advance of the documentary’s screenings at Cinema Village in Manhattan, New York, this month, The New York Times highlighted the film with a review. The article is titled, “‘Emptying the Skies’ Follows the Rescue of Songbirds at Most Any Cost,” and was published in the newspaper’s April 22 print edition.
Reviewer Neil Genzlinger called the documentary, “a thoughtful bit of filmmaking, one that at heart is not really about birds at all.”
The film, which has been distributed in Europe and Canada, has won several film festival awards, including the Zelda Penzel “Giving Voice to the Voiceless” Award at the Hampton’s Film Festival in New York. According to the festival’s site, the honor is given to “a film that raises public awareness about contemporary social issues, including the moral and ethical treatment and the rights of animals.”
Cinema Village will screen “Emptying the Skies” on Wednesday, April 22, and Thursday, April 23, at 2 and 7:20 p.m. Additionally showings are slated for Friday, April 24, through Thursday, April 30, at 1:25 and 7:25 p.m. Following this month’s U.S. theatrical premiere, the documentary will be screened in other select cities across the country.
A trailer for “Emptying the Skies” can be viewed here.