Fresh
The movie invokes a childlike curiosity with the natural world and communicates sincere admiration for the people who tend to it.
Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader
Overview
Sundance-and-Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker Judy Irving (with her first film since the widely acclaimed and loved “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”) follows a wayward California brown pelican from her “arrest” on the Golden Gate Bridge into care at a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and from there explores pelicans’ nesting grounds, Pacific coast migration, and survival challenges of these ancient birds, sometimes referred to as the flying dinosaurs. The film is about wildness, and asks the following questions: how close can we get to a wild animal without taming or harming it? Why do we need wildness in our lives, and how can we protect it? PELICAN DREAMS, stars “Gigi” (for Golden Gate) and Morro (a backyard pelican with an injured wing).
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Fresh
The film is basically 80 minutes of bird-watching, but Irving has a knack for storytelling that makes the time, like those birds, fly away effortlessly.
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
Fresh
It's a nature film with a very personal entry point. Two, really. The fate of these birds, which, the film tells us, could live into their 40s, becomes as engrossing as many a human drama.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
Fresh
Whatever you think you know about pelicans, "Pelican Dreams" will surprise you.
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times
Fresh
It's a nicely photographed study of California's brown pelicans, fascinating birds with a spectacular divebombing method of feeding.
Neil Genzlinger, New York Times
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