New film provides a look at our birds and their journeys

What is the future for songbirds like chickadees?

I had the opportunity this past week to see an amazing new film, a documentary about birds. The film was called The Messenger.

Now the reason it was called that is mentioned in the film's beginning and reiterated once or twice as throughout the film.

It goes back to the fact that ancient peoples viewed birds as messengers - messengers from the gods, messengers from the other side, messages from the spirit world - and it is the film's premise that they are still messengers today - and the message they have for us is one about our own future.

The film delves into several issues migratory songbirds face in our modern world; one of them is the way that they can get disoriented by the light that we as humans create in our cities. It shows how, in cities like New York and Toronto, our night-time lights can really produce a negative impact on their migrations up and down the coast from north to south and back again.

Connected with that is the way thousands of birds kill themselves flying into our city's high-rise buildings. This issue resulted in the birth of the organization FLAP as a response to it.

Another issue facing songbirds is the hunting of them for food.

That's right - food.

In France, there is a huge controversy right now about how the centuries-old tradition of hunting ortolans for food. The film actually interviewed one of the hunters, as well as some folks dedicated to stopping the practice. Although it is now illegal, French authorities, by-and-large, look the other way.

The film also looked at other issues facing birds, a big one being pesticides - including the 21st century production of grains which have pesticides built right into them by seed manufacturers.

The movie also documents the way our industrial development - the need to drill for oil, most noticeably - and how it can affect the bird population in the boreal forest.

The film takes us all over the world - from the Eastern Seaboard of North America, to the jungles of Costa Rica, the fields of France, the prairies of Saskatchewan, and the boreal forests of Alberta, to name but a few destinations.

It's a journey, a trip around the world, to see what it is these birds are facing - and what they, as messengers, are trying to tell us.

Female red-winged blackbird. Will their songs be silent soon?

Birds are incredibly adaptable, probably more so than mammals. Despite that, they are suffering. We're changing the environment so fast now, faster than birds can cope with it.

And while this does not bode well for them, it also has ramifications for us.

As one of the people interviewed in the film says, "Songbirds are really like the canary in the coal mine ... they are telling us something is wrong, something is happening on the planet that is not good."

That's why organizations like FLAP and Bird Studies Canada work so hard to try to figure everything out so we can make changes - for the birds...and for our own future.

The film is directed by Su Rynard. Not a scientist, not even a birder, really, she did a masterful job in bringing this film together. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous ... breath-taking beauty radiates from the screen. Probably why it's won so many awards.

Those of us who attended the movie were fortunate enough to "meet" and chat with her via Skype on the big theatre screen. Ah, technology. (Ironically, while technology can help us enjoy these types of experiences, it can also harm, as the movie points out.)

It played very briefly last Sunday, March 20 in Vancouver, at the Rio Theatre, one show and one day only. But it will be back again in May, for a showing May 9, again, at the Rio. Their website has information about other venues hosting it, and plans are in the works to

In the meantime, enjoy some of the marvelous footage in this trailer.

Flyover Canada really takes off

IMAX move over, let Flyover take over.

If you are one of those who remember the very first IMAX film way back in 1971, you'll get it. For those who don't, well, let's just say if you missed the PNE, this might make up for some of the rides you didn't get to experience on the midway.

The "hangar"...all set to fly us across Canada

But this experience will be much more memorable, I assure you.

When IMAX first came out, and the movie North of Superior was playing at the Omni-theatre at Ontario Place, there was a buzz about it that it was like "being in a plane" while it was flying down a canyon, or it was like "being in a canoe as you flipped in the rapids."

I'll admit, there was a little bit of that element to it - but it was nothing like the Flyover experience I enjoyed at Canada Place in Vancouver earlier this week.

If you have ever wanted to experience extreme flying - without really flying - this is the place to do it.

The experience lasts about half an hour, spread through three segments.

In the first segment, we stood in darkened room with a more-or-less circular 360 degree movie screen around us, with Surround Sound and a constant collage-barrage of moving images flashing up on the screen.

Getting some pre-flight boarding instructions

After about five to 10 minutes of that, we're ushered into the "pre-boarding" area, we line up and watch a short video about safety and procedures on the "flight" we're soon to embark upon.

Then we file into the "flight room" and we're strapped into seats for "takeoff." The "flight attendant" has you tuck any carry-ons into the storage bin underneath your seat.

It was at this point the smart-ass in me could not resist asking, "When do you come around with drinks and snacks?"

I probably wasn't the first to ask, and probably will not be the last. She just smiled and laughed, saying, "Enjoy the flight."

You really do need to belted in, as the seats literally do lift up in the air. The screen opens up and suddenly you're "flying."

Our "flight crew" ready to serve us.

The seats bank and dive and climb as the camera pans around the vistas, which are from all over Canada, and took a year to film.

You even feel the mist from a cloud as you fly through it, the spray from rapids as you zoom down a river canyon. 

I'm not being poetic or colourful - there is a machine that is actually co-ordinated to spray you at the appropriate times throughout the film.

Up and down the mountains, across the prairies (where you can literally smell the flax seed), down rivers, past the CN Tower, along the seashore, flying above eagles soaring through mountain passes.

Hope I meet the height qualifications!

I felt myself grabbing the seat arms more than once during a steep climb or bank. At one point, the woman sitting next to me said, "Is it okay to scream?" I think she was only being semi-facetious.

All too soon, we're done our ride and the seats settle back into place as we prepare to disembark.

As we exit, I hear a horn blowing from one of the cruise ships docked at the Canada Place terminal, and for just a moment, I think, "I hope I my ship hasn't sailed without me..." before snapping back to reality and realizing I'm in a souvenir shop at the end of a virtual journey, not making an air-to-sea connection.

Before I even get a chance to look at the souvenirs available for purchase, my mind is already thinking:

Where do I get another "boarding pass...?"