THE LORD GOD BIRD
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Boyd Hall Auditorium, PSU campus, Plymouth
It’s the Holy Grail of ornithology. If America had a bird of paradise this would be it, and its history is the story of American conservation. — George Plimpton
In February 2004, conservationists rejoiced when they heard that the supposedly extinct Ivory-billed woodpecker had been sighted in the swamps of Arkansas. More excitement followed in April of that year when images thought to be the Ivory-billed were caught on tape. The rarest of rare birds, the Ivory-bill is so spectacular that according to legend those who see it spontaneously cry out, “Lord God! What was that?” But some scientists remain skeptical. They believe that these most magnificent birds are gone forever. While for the majority of Americans this sighting came as a wholly unexpected piece of good news from the conservation front, to the inner circle of birders this was the latest installment in a very old, legendary tale of hope and survival. Once common throughout the southeast United States, the bird had vanished over the past century as its forest habitat was devastated, reappearing periodically to reawaken hope for threatened species and environments everywhere.
This 90-minute film tells the story of the Ivory-bill not merely as a quaint piece of natural history, but as a story of faith and doubt, despair and hope regarding our own relationship with the environment. Covering the tension between skeptics who regard the bird as fantasy as well as those with determined faith in its existence, the documentary also explores the grass-roots conservation of the Arkansas outdoorsmen who most recently sighted the bird. Acclaimed documentary filmmaker George Butler explores the existence of the Ivory-billed, as well as the remarkable people surrounding the controversy, in The Lord God Bird.
The Squam Lakes Natural Science Center is delighted to present George Butler’s The Lord God Bird. Directed by George Butler, written by Caroline Alexander, produced by George Butler and Robert Nixon and co-produced by Elisabeth Haviland James in association with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and in partnership with National Geographic Films.
The film will be shown at Boyd Science Center, Room 144 Plymouth State University Highland Street, Plymouth.
The film is about the tension between the people who love the bird and believe it exists and the coolly objective ornithologists who say it can not possibly exist – it is extinct. Any way you look at the story it has got interesting angles. — George Butler
Cost: $20/member; $25/non-member; $10/PSU student
Parking:
Use lots 106, 107, 109, and 110. Click here for map.
Lots 106 and 107 are accessible from Langdon Street, while 109 and 110 are accessible from Highland Street (and are closer to Boyd).
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