Apology

It's been almost a month since I last posted. I know I've been sick, but this is ridiculous. I've been spending too much time on the Net buying stuff (predominately DVDs) than creating content. John Howard will be pleased.

Travelling Birds

[movie] I saw this last weekend in Canberra. The film makers film migrating birds (the original title is "Winged Migration" which is much better) from a distance of, oh, about a metre. To make the film they raised the birds from chicks and had them adopt an ultralight as part of the flock. So they could get a lot closer to flying birds (amazingly close) and film them flying under the Brooklyn Bridge, or through the Grand Canyon, or over Arctic ice. Almost pure cinema, if they could scrap the annoying voiceover and the euro-pap soundtrack. And they do cheat, with a couple of scenes using computer graphics that are, to my mind, unnecessary. Despite those little niggles, it is a fabulous film to see in a cinema, a throwback to the idea of cinema showing what exists but cannot be seen otherwise.