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Woodpecker: A film about birdwatching for those who don't give much of a rat's ass about birdwatching. By Denez McAdoo
The Ivory-billed woodpecker. The Lord-God bird. The holy-grail of birdwatching. If these phrases alone don't get your ornithological blood pumping, then, well, your probably just well-adjusted.
Birdwatching might not necessarily be the sexy and seductive world that you hyperbolically think it is. But director Alex Karpovsky's new film, Woodpecker, screening this weekend at the Independent Film Festival, is only ostensibly a movie about the lurid world of birdwatching and what happens when its rarest specimen emerges for rediscovery. Rather, it is the tale of how one man can be driven past the brink of sanity in order to pursue the ultimate quest of personal self fulfillment: becoming a world class birdwatcher.
The film is part documentary and part narrative as it explores actual events surrounding the rediscovery of the previously-thought-extinct lost holy-grail of birdwatching: the Ivory-billed woodpecker. There are a number of talking-heads that guide you through the sudden volatility of this otherwise seemingly sterile world of ornithology, but the main narrative action surrounds one disparagingly dedicated man and his chronically inarticulate side-kick as they tough the Arkansas wilderness in order to catch a glimpse of the impossible and attain fame and glory. Instead, it's hope, defeat, tragedy, and despair that are all on full display here, all served up with a healthy dose of tongue held firmly in cheek. One man's mental breakdown is our film festival entertainment fodder as the line between documentary exploitation becomes blurred between the characters and the audience. 
Johnny is house painter and an amateur poet, but at heart, his is all birdwatcher. He's also a wee-bit socially maladjusted, though remains a sympathetic character both because of his infectious passion and because a certain level of social maladjustment is expected from anyone willing to spend several weeks wading knee deep in a bog just to look at birds. Johnny also writes poems about birds. Terrible poems. Ok, Johnny is a neurotic.
Set in Brinkley, Arkansas, the backdrop of the movie chronicles the true tale of how a small town USA, crippled by economic downturn, develops its identity, as well as a lucrative cottage industry, around the possibility of sightings of the Ivory-billed woodpecker. But the rare bird, known affectionately as Good-God bird or Lord-God bird based on the the sudden exclamations of those that claim to have seen it, is as elusive a specimen as its reputation would suggest. We end up never quite sure weather the bird even exists or not.
But this ambiguity is exactly the sort of concept that director Karpovsky wants to intentionally toy around with – mainly involving our expectations of a documentary. Woodpecker is no average animal centered nature documentary. There's a certain comedic twist to it that can't be given away in this preview, so just take my advise that this film will likely defy your expectations, is truly entertaining, and will probably teach you nothing about birdwatching. 
Keep your eyes open, and maybe one day you'll find your own inner Ivory-billed woodpecker.
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