Pelican Dreams

PELICAN DREAMS opens with a suspenseful scene in which a very frightened pelican has landed on and becomes stranded on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Cars have stopped; workers have arrived on the scene to attempt a rescue. For those few minutes, the busy lives of everyone on the bridge is in limbo. Fortunately for filmmaker Judy Irving, she was on the bridge with her camera. As her narration tells us, and as her earlier successful film The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill has shown us, Irving is passionate about flight, birds, and nature. Once Gigi (named for the Golden Gate) is saved, the audience follows her to the place where she'll be treated and rehabilitated. Then, hopefully, she'll be sent back into the wild so she can spend her long life diving for anchovies, finding a partner, and giving birth to baby pelicans. As Gigi's adventure continues, pelican life in general is explored. The audience meets another endangered bird; Morro, too, emerges as a heroic protagonist. A visit to other bird facilities and sanctuaries -- as well as to the Channel Islands, the Pacific Coast's only pelican breeding ground -- broadens the movie's scope and brings the amazing birds and their committed caregivers to life.