The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is a 2003 documentary film directed, produced, and edited by Judy Irving. It chronicles the relationship between Mark Bittner, an unemployed musician who is living rent-free in a cabin in Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, California, and a flock of feral parrots (cherry-headed and two blue-crowned conures) that he feeds and interacts with. Bittner also wrote a book by the same name on the subject. In May 2007, the documentary aired on the PBS series Independent Lens.
Much of the documentary focuses on the individual parrots, and their relationships with one another. Bittner notes that there is humor in the piece, which he believes makes it different from many other nature documentaries. Raising funding for the film was difficult at first, as Irving had to find individual donors. The proceeds from a fundraiser, in which Bittner gave a presentation to a packed theater, allowed Irving to start shooting the film in earnest.
The musical score was created by Chris Michie, a Bay area musician, formerly the guitarist for Van Morrison. It was his final project before he died from melanoma. The film, which he did not live to see released, is dedicated to him.
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“That air would disappear from the whole earth in time, perhaps; but long after his day. He did not know just when it had become so necessary to him, but he had come back to die in exile for the sake of it. Something soft and wild and free, something that whispered to the ear on the pillow, lightened the heart, softly, softly picked the lock, slid the bolts, and released the prisoned spirit of man into the wind, into the blue and gold, into the morning, into the morning!”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“And the chandeliers are neat . . .
But their mignon, marblish glare!
We are cold, the parrots cried,
In a place so debonair.”
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“I have felt darkness lead me by the hand
Over the hill to greet the singing dawn....”
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