EVERY LITTLE THING

Australia, 2024, 93 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Sally Aitken.

Documentaries about birds are always popular. This film has had many award nominations.

And the little things of the title are hummingbirds. One of the delights of the documentary is the close focus on the hummingbirds themselves, close-ups, extreme close-ups, focusing on their size, their feathers, their colours, their beauty, their wings, flying and birds in motion.

The directors of this film is Australian, Sally Aitken, from several documentaries about sharks, to a documentary on the Wiggles, and a series on Australian cinema featuring David Stratton an Australian. This time, however, she has gone to California to meet with Terry Masear who is not only an expert on hummingbirds but has played a large part in studying them, caring for them, introducing them to many bird lovers.

Terry Masear has her own story and she is quite a strong and pleasant personality on screen, being interviewed, telling the story of her life, her upbringing, her partner and his collaboration, the sadness of his death. But, interviews with her are intercut with so many of the sequences of the birds themselves and their beautiful variety.

And, some of the locals come to visit, finding hummingbirds and bringing them to Terry Masear for her care, returning to check, helping the audience to identify quite a number of the birds, their names, the difficulties they encounter, care for them, their recovery, and returning to flight and freedom.

While there is a pleasing human story and audiences will be glad to have met Terry Masear, Every Little Thing is a reminder that the little things of creation, especially small birds, have a life of their own, their talent, their contribution to the ecology, and delight in their own right.