By Sandra Hall
EVERY LITTLE THING ★★★½
(PG) 93 minutes
Hummingbirds are paradoxical creatures. They are no heavier than a marshmallow and no longer than an adult’s little finger, yet they can fly so fast that most probably escaped the wildfires that recently ravaged their habitats in Los Angeles’s Hollywood Hills. And they can be ferocious, liable to pick a fight with any hummingbird they don’t like.
Every Little Thing is a documentary about Terry Masear, who has been studying and caring for injured hummingbirds for the past 20 years. When the film opens, her patients include Jimmy, a fledgling who toppled out of his nest, possibly after his mother was killed; Sugar Baby, whose wing feathers were destroyed after some clueless person doused her in sugar water; and Cactus, a fledgling who fell backwards into a cactus where a thorn pierced her back.
Every Little Thing captures the paradoxical lives of hummingbirds.
Australian writer-director Sally Aitken came across Masear in 2021 after reading her book, Fastest Things on Wings. At that stage, Masear had moved from West Hollywood to Portland, Oregon, and was giving telephone advice to people who had found injured birds and were doing their best to treat them.
For the film, she returned to LA and was set up in a hillside house with a large deck where large cages were installed for the birds’ rehabilitation. It’s here that we follow the progress of Jimmy, Sugar Baby, Cactus and the rest.
Masear is an understandably earnest woman, and although she has four graduate degrees, she regards the birds as her vocation in life. She speaks of an unhappy childhood, speculating on the possibility that this might have something to do with her devotion to such vulnerable creatures, but it seems more likely that she’s simply become fascinated by their uniqueness – and their personalities.
Hummingbirds are ferocious little creatures.Credit: AP
She is philosophical about the probability that some of her patients aren’t going to make it, but she has her favourites. She’s following the relationship between Mikhail and Alexa, who seem to be in love even though they belong to different hummingbird species. At least, the male’s in love. Masear suspects that once they’re back in the wild, the independently minded Alexa may choose to fly solo.
And there’s the irrepressible Jimmy, whom Masear has marked down as a show-off. An enthusiastic flyer, he’s about to graduate to one of the outdoor cages to join the Wild Boys, a hyperactive gang who will soon be fit to fly free.
Before they’re released, they must be able to defend themselves in a hummingbird brawl as well as mastering the art of vertical flight by defying gravity and rising straight up in the air.
The film is a little long. There are a few spots where the padding shows but Aitken and her cinematographers have produced some mesmerising sequences, capturing the beauty of the birds and the wonders they perform with those whirring wings.
Every Little Thing is released in cinemas March 6.
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