In Pelican Dreams, an intimate portrait of an iconic seabird species, filmmaker Judy Irving follows a wayward, starving California brown pelican from her “arrest” on the Golden Gate Bridge into care at a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and from there explores pelicans’ nesting grounds, Pacific coast migration, and survival challenges. The film is about 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?Pelican Dreams stars “Gigi” (for Golden Gate) and “Morro” (a backyard pelican with an injured wing), as well as the wildlife professionals who care for them. Co-sponsored by Point Reyes Books, Black Mountain Circle, Point Reyes National Seashore Association, and Turtle Island Restoration Network.

Photo: White Pelicans Stroll in St. James Park, London. Stephen McLaren for Pelican Media

About Judy Irving:  Judy Irving is a Sundance and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker whose previous credits include The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, Dark Circle, a feature documentary about the nuclear industry, and Out of the Way Café, an hour-long drama. She spent childhood summers on the North Fork of Long Island, and came to love birds thanks to her grandfather. Judy graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in psychology and worked as a freelance journalist in Montreal before hitchhiking across the continent and living on a handmade raft-house in British Columbia. Later, she received her masters in film and broadcasting from Stanford University.