once i counted birds

'Thank you so much for your fantastic videos. They are deeply moving in their simplicity. The videos are very moving, - a very clear way of communicating this huge catastrophe on an intimate scale.' Kevin Buckland, Art Ambassador, 350.org 2010.




Rising sea levels, birds and forests on the other side of the world - all our actions are connected. Artist/amateur film maker, Cathy Fitzgerald, has a background in science and fine art.

This new film incorporates old footage taken by Cathy on a biodiversity research trip to Suwarrow; a remote, un-peopled atoll in the Cook Islands, South Pacific, in 2000. Suwarrow is an important breeding place for seabirds of all types including the rare and very large Masked Booby; her and fellow scientist Rhys Jones collected data was later published in the NZ Forest and Bird Journal 2001 and the project was a jointly sponsored UN and Cook Island project. While the trip may look idyllic, Cathy almost drowned when the yacht she and her colleague hitched a lift with was hit by a freak wave. Her new digital camcorder was destroyed but her old Hi8 survived to take this footage.

Many years later, Cathy is now actively involved in promoting ecological, permanent forestry in her small woodlands in Ireland; she blogs and creates works about converting her 20 year old conifer plantation to a permanent forest using Pro Silva, close to nature, forestry methods. She believes that small local ecologically based actions can have a positive effect globally and personally.

**Thanks to Dan Berridge/Broadway Project for the use of his music in this film.

Cathy is a researcher artist filmmaker undertaking in 2010 a PhD at NCAD/GradCAM in practice and theory of film and ecology http://www.gradcam.ie/people/cathy_fitz.php. She works with professional foresters. She is also working on Irish forestry policy.


Film history:
10.10.10 Submitted to the global day of climate action at www.350.org
2010 entered into the Darklight /EU Commission My Film My Environment 1 min film festival
2010 3rd Malaysian EcoFilm Festival
2010 Shown at the Shankhill International Arts Festival, Kilkenny
2010 Selected for Wylie OHagan Online festival
2010 Selected for Carlow Eigse Film Programme in the Carlow Omniplex Cinema
2009 Screened at FutureProof Kilkenny Green Screen
2009 entered the International Guardian sponsored 1minutetosavetheworld Climate Change Film Festival

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• 2011 environment

[convex02l]

Really beautiful.....

[cathnarnia]

@convex02l thank you

[janalexander3]

Astonishing video, - tender and light yet passing on such a powerful and relevant message. Wonderful

[cathnarnia]

@janalexander3 thank you so much

[arunboses]

Loved ur film so much. You r doing what I always wanted to do in life. Traveling though the paradise of nature and filming the delicate moments. Good photography too.

Arun Bose

[cathnarnia]

Hi Arun

So delighted that you saw my work too. I am writing a short blog about your piece today- will list your blog on my site and have subscribed to your youtube channel - will be following your filmwork progress with much interest, Congrats again, Cathy

[lyttlemartin]

What a great little film, very poetic and engaging work

[mrhasanfilms]

wonderful work ... loved the sound and story of course

[RonanG]

I love this. Just goes to show what can be done with a limited budget and an unlimited imagination. 5 Stars and a Favourite!

RonanG

Iron Mountain Movies

[meitaki]

Superb words and pictures....I hope it makes people think carefully about what we risk losing in the world if we don't care for our environment.