THE BIRDS TELL ME ALL THERE IS TO KNOW
Dir. Aiden Cronin, 2026.
United States, 123 minutes.
In English.
FRIDAY, JULY 17 – 7:30 PM (w/Q&A)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, JULY 23 – 7:30 PM (w/Q&A)
MONDAY, JULY 27 – 7:30 PM
As the Summer comes to a close in upstate New York, Paul, a widowed painter with dementia crosses paths with Sam, a young woman reconciling with the death of her father.
Despite their brief meeting, both Paul and Sam connect over a shared melancholic sameness, finding themselves drawn in and out of each other’s orbit by the vessel of a birdhouse as they individually go about their daily lives: Paul tending to the maintenance of lonely rural backyard life, and Sam who navigates a relationship on the brink of uncertainty.
Shot on Video8 the precursor format to Hi8 video, the film stylistically positions itself as a cross between an existentially fraught lofi David Attenbourough nature doc, with the frantic improvised dramatic looseness of early Joe Swanberg movies. Set to the ambient sonic pattern of birds, peepers, crickets and moving rivers, which do battle with the reoccuring cacophony of landscapers and lawn mowers that challenge their world– “Birds” invites viewers into its hypnotic rhythm, allowing space to consider one’s owns problems in juxtaposition to the natural world.