To Teach a Bird to Fly imagines a future where the relationship between human and nonhuman species is not one based on exploitation, but on cohabitation and collaboration. The film turns the predominantly dystopic climate change and extinction narratives upside down, and replaces them with a very differently imagined future. By doing so it gives us a glimpse into a world changed for the better, and offers us a reason for hope – and action – in the present.

About the film

The film explores extinction and climate change through a fictionalized story told from a perspective of the future.

A woman reflects on events from the past – today’s world – when her grandmother worked as a foster parent to a critically endangered bird, the Northern Bald Ibis. The film follows the Waldrapp project in Germany, where a young woman (the narrator’s future grandmother) helps breed and hand-raise the birds. She spends all her time with the birds, eventually teaching them to migrate by following a light aircraft across the Alps to their wintering grounds in Tuscany, Italy.

The film highlights this process as a locus of hope, not just for the future of the Ibis, but for the future of the environment and the planet. The script is narrated from the perspective of the foster parent and her colleagues at the Waldrapp project, but projected some 80 years into the futur, as stories passed down from one generation to another. The narrator recalls stories her grandmother told her about the surprising bond she experienced with the birds.

Trailer

The story connects the endangered bird species to the wider context of climate change, species extinction, and the future of our planet.

Poster

Funded by

Avek Kopiosto

The Finnish Film Foundation

Yle

Arts Promotion Centre Finland

Kone Foundation

Gold & Green of Helsinki

TEAM

Written & Directed by Minna Rainio & Mark Roberts

Producer Maria Gullsten

Director of Photography Ilmari Mannermaa

Editor Jani Johansen

Colorist Jussi Rovanperä

Sound Designer Heikki Illikainen

Foley Artist Heikki Kossi

Music Petri Kuljuntausta

Graphic Designer Toni Rantanen

CGI Artist Juha Takabe

Narrator Sarah Calver

Produced by Flatlight

Site: www.flatlight.fi/toteachabirdtofly