Sunday Night Entertainment has announced the world broadcast premiere of the new documentary, The Secret Life of Pigeons, written, produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Scott Harper (The Age of Anxiety, Flying Solo, Lost Adventures of Childhood), airing on CBC-TV’s The Nature of Things on Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 8:00p.m. (8:30 NT).
Despite their incredible gifts and impressive contribution to human history, the pigeons that live in the city today don’t get a lot of love. For the most part, we look right through them. When they do get noticed, it’s often for being dim witted, dirty nuisances. But as the first animal to be domesticated on earth, and one with a remarkable ability to adapt to urban life, pigeons have a compelling story to tell. A drama filled, steeped-in-history, amazing story.
Pigeons have lately faded into the background of city life, but over the centuries we’ve relied on them for everything from food, to vital communications, to entertainment to contemporary brain science. Woody Allen was wrong, these are not just rats with wings. The Secret Life of Pigeons intends to set the record straight, casting these humble but amazing creatures in a whole new and beautiful light.
The ones you see in parks and ledges all over town, are the descendants of domestic birds that were once bred for food, as messengers, to race or for show. Today, their gritty urban lives are spent simply trying to evade peril; speeding cars, hungry hawks, and pest control companies bent on their extermination. Because they rely on scraps, they’re always just one step ahead of starvation. With the odds stacked against them, and to survive where they’re not wanted, pigeons rely on a combination of charity from a few and their own incredible smarts to hang on ….
The Secret Life of Pigeons delves further into their behaviour through the scientists that know them best. At the University of Quebec, Luc-Alain Giraldeau shows us how pigeons cleverly distribute themselves over a given space to optimize their food resources, effectively dividing it up so that each bird gets the same amount.
We’ll also show you pigeons in a way you’ve never seen; in the air, on the street and in the nest. By placing the first ever HD camera onboard a pigeon, you’ll get an incredible, genuine bird’s eye view. We look in on the fascinating subculture of pigeon racing – a favorite pastime for royals, celebrities and working people all over the world. And we’ll enter the realm of the pigeon fancier, the breeders that create exotic and bizarre new strands in a tradition with roots in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Have a look at a pigeon flying around Toronto with an HD camera here