A Birder's Guide to Everything

A Birder's Guide to Everything

Sloan Foundation Film

Release Date

2013

Director

  • Rob Meyer

Cast

  • Kodi Smit-McPhee
  • Ben Kingsley
  • James Le Gros
  • Daniela Lavender

Awards

  • TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund Grant, 2011
  • Sundance Institute Sloan Science-in-Film Initiative Fellowship, 2010

Teenaged birding fanatic David Portnoy takes an epic road trip with his best friends to solidify their place in birding history.

Teenaged birding fanatic David Portnoy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) thinks he's made the discovery of a lifetime. On the eve of his widower father's second wedding, David spots what may just be the extinct Labrador duck. After consulting with a famous local ornithologist, Lawrence Konrad (Ben Kingsley), he and the two other stalwart members of the local Young Birders Society (Michael Chen, Alex Wolff), joined by their headstrong photographer classmate Ellen (Katie Chang), take off on a rollicking, interstate road trip in search of a rare bird and elusive answers to teenage questions large and small.

Possible Topics

  • Citizen science: How scientists and conservationists use amateur birdwatchers’ sightings
  • Birds in peril and biodiversity
  • How ducks and other birds communicate
  • The evolution of birds

Past Programs

2014

The Mysteries of Extinct Birds

Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA

2015

Birding and Citizen Science

Civic Theatre of Allentown, Allentown, PA

2016

Recording the Sounds of Nature

Juneau Underground Motion Picture Society and Gold Town Theater, Juneau, AK

2017

Caring for Endangered Birds

Wilmette Theatre, Wilmette, IL

Bird Behavior

Images Cinema, Williamstown, MA

2020

Comeback successes of the birding world

The Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center, Sewickley, PA

2021

Parental care in birds

Dietrich Theater, Tunkhannock, PA

Avian ecology: A conversation

California Film Institute, San Rafael, CA

2022

A Birder's Guide to Everything at Ross Ragland Theater

Ross Ragland Theater, Klamath Falls, OR

Look Around: Are birds adapting to a rapidly changing environment?

Rosendale Theatre Collective, Rosendale, NY

A birder's guide to Detroit

Cinema Detroit, Detroit, MI

Martha’s Vineyard: A haven for vagrant birds

Martha's Vineyard Film Society, Tisbury, MA

2024