Chicken Flick:
Backyard Chickens for All
will be one of 4 films featured at the Jacob Burns Film Center Media Arts Lab on Thursday June 16th at 5pm.
Please join us!
RSVP to Theresa Dawson tdawson@burnsfilmcenter.org
This movie came about as a result of my participation in the Reel Change for Non-profits class at JBFC’s Media Arts Lab. This class helps non profit groups use film in their advocacy work. I partnered up with Nicola Coddington, a kindred spirit when it comes to environmental activism. She is the former executive director of Interfaith Power and Light, and is currently writing a book about how to accelerate positive social change, especially in the areas of climate change, energy, sustainable/local agriculture and water. She and I are both active members of Transition Westchester.
Originally, Nikki and I wanted to create a short film that would highlight what the Transition Towns movement was about: building resilient communities across the United States that are able to withstand severe energy, climate or economic shocks while creating a better quality of life in the process. But we soon realized that this was too big of a story to tell in under 5 minutes.
Instead, we decided to focus on one aspect of re-localizing food. Neither one of us are backyard chicken farmers, but we were well aware that urban and suburban chickens were a growing trend. The “chick(en) flick” was the result of our collective brainstorm.
Another student, Carol Leicht, came to class all the way from Florida. In addition to being a nurse, Carol has been diligently working as a videographer for her church and was up here in NY to take all the classes that the Media Arts Lab had to offer. Carol was also keen on backyard chickens, she even had a short little chicken video on her iPhone! We were thrilled to partner up with her on this project. Her expertise on Final Cut Pro came in really handy, we learned loads from her!
The three of us put in many hours of filming and editing to make this 5 minute movie that will be used by many groups here in NY and across the country who are trying to convince town boards to change the zoning rules to allow backyard chickens.
How to get our point across in under 5 minutes? We could have bored you with facts and statistics on how industrial egg operations are harmful to human and planetary health. Instead, we told the story of 4 families who are successfully keeping chickens in their yards for healthy eggs and a deeper connection to nature. These examples of parents who want the best for their kids will no doubt convince viewers that backyard chicken keeping is a worthwhile activity.
One of the stars of our movie
If you can’t make it to the big premiere in Pleasantville this week,no worries. The Chicken Flick will be up on Vimeo or YouTube in a short while.
In the meantime, have a listen to this NPR piece on the growing trend of backyard chickens. What the Cluck?
PS: If you live in my town, Chappaqua, you need 10 acres to have backyard chickens! Considering all you need in Brooklyn is 10 square feet per chicken, this zoning seems incredibly unfair! Please consider signing the Chickens for Chappaqua petition. Click here for more info.
