'Pelican Dreams'

Pelican Dreams (2014, 80 min.), an intimate portrait of an iconic species by filmmaker Judy Irving, follows a wayward, starving California brown pelican from her "arrest" on the roadway of the Golden Gate Bridge into care at a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and from there explores pelicans' nesting grounds, Pacific coast migration, and survival challenges. A Q&A with producer/director Judy Irving will follow the screening.

Starring "Gigi" (for Golden Gate) and "Morro" (a backyard pelican with an injured wing), as well as the wildlife professionals who care for them, Pelican Dreams raises important questions about human relationships to wildness: How close can we get to a wild animal without taming or harming it? Why do we need wildness in our lives, and how can we protect it? 

Judy Irving is a Sundance-and-Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker whose previous credits include The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, a feature documentary about the relationship between a homeless street musician and a flock of wild parrots in San Francisco, and Dark Circle, about the links between nuclear power and weapons.