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Saving the Hummingbirds of Los Angeles, Despite the Odds
Sally Aitken’s sublime new documentary, Every Little Thing, shows us that healing society begins with healing the most vulnerable.
Aitken’s film (which opens theatrically in New York this weekend and will slowly make its way around the country in subsequent weeks) follows the efforts of Terry Masear, who runs a rescue operation dedicated to rehabbing injured and orphaned hummingbirds from all over the greater Los Angeles area. Watching her carefully handle the hummingbirds — cupping them in her hands, drip-feeding them with syringes, cleaning their gossamer wings with cotton swabs, placing them in diminutive handwoven nests — we see someone capable of great tenderness, but we also feel that there might be more to this woman’s single-minded determination. Central to this mystery are the film’s breathtaking close-ups of the hummingbirds, including lengthy slow-motion passages showing us the absurd speed of their wings, their almost alien ability to suspend themselves in the air, and the ridiculous contortions of their tiny bodies.
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