Feathered Cocaine: Interview with the Filmmakers

Tribeca Film Festival, New York, May 2 2010--In this interview, Icelandic coproducer/directors Thorkell S. Hardarson and Orn Marino Arnarson discuss how their film, Feathered Cocaine, originally intended to be a history of falconry, entered a world of intrigue and geopolitics once they made contact with Alan Howell Parrot, a falcon trainer since the age of 18. Parrot, who became the protagonist of Feathered Cocaine, is one of the worlds leading falcon trainers with strong connections in the Middle East, where he formerly trained hunting falcons for the Persian Gulf power elite, including the King of Saudi Arabia, the President of the United Arab Emirates and the Shah of Iran. After witnessing relentless falcon smuggling in the wake of the USSRs collapse, he left the Middle East and formed a global nature conservation group with like-minded people to protect the falcons.

Through his connections, Mr. Parrot learned of the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden, who is an obsessed falconer. He has tried to relay this information to the Bush administration since 2005 (and to the Obama Administration since he took office in 2009), yet has met silence or obstruction. The FBI, CIA, NSA, OCO and Rewards For Justice program have all chosen not to reach out to the one man who says he has gone falcon hunting with Osama Bin Laden six times since 2004. Feathered Cocaines intriguing cocktail of geopolitics, terrorism, petrodollars, and nature conservation sheds light on how business is conducted in the global merry-go round of money and politics.
After its world premiere at the 9th Tribeca Film Festival, Feathered Cocaine is playing at Hot Docs, Toronto, on May 4 and May 6.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• hot docs
• tribeca film festival
• falcon smuggling
• falconry
• al quaeda
• new york
• persian gulf
• liza bear
• documentary

[FeatheredCocaine]

My name is Thorkell Hardarson and I am 1 of 2 directors of Feathered Cocaine. Many rant on the Internet about Mr Parrot and the film. Most of them have 2 things in common: 1. they have never met Mr Parrot. 2. they have not seen the film. Yet they feel entitled to talk trash about things they have no knowledge of ... like the genial C0CK00. If Parrot's conservation work is "unsubstantiated", why are Saker falcons going regionally extinct across Central Asia where Arab falconers have access?

[C0CK00]

1) Alan Parrot once proposed monopolizing a legal Saker falcon harvest from Mongolia, so he would have exclusive legal right to trap, export, and sell Sakers to Arab falconers. The Mongolian government denied his proposal, and thus began Parrot's unsubstantiated "conservation" crusade.

[ravetunes]

hey there, where can i get this film been waiting for months to see it!

[Zourkraut]

djöfull eru þið sætir ha!

[Varmint38]

This is going open up a big can of worms!

Some fresh, some old.

[geewhizpat]

I want to see this...when will be there a showing in SF?

[bsm413]

When is this documentary going to be available to watch / buy? I'm very interested in watching this.