Outdoors Based on a magazine essay written by noted best-selling novelist Jonathan Franzen for The New Yorker and widely republished around the world, Emptying the Skies chronicles the rampant poaching of migratory songbirds in southern Europe. Songbird populations have been drastically declining for several decades, and a number of species face extinction imminently. The film explores the wonder of these tiny globe-flying marvels, millions of which are unlawfully slaughtered each year for large sums on the black market, and follows an intrepid squad of pan-European bird-lovers who risk their lives waging a secret war against poachers, disrupting illegal trapping and freeing as many birds as possible.
To make Emptying the Skies, the filmmakers spent nearly a year in the field, going from mission to mission, from summer to fall to winter to spring embedded with their subjects as they operated their “camps” to confront poachers at critical migration pinch-points in Cyprus, France and Italy. Filming took place in Germany and Manhattan as well.
Emptying the Skies is Jonathan Franzen’s first foray into motion picture production.
THIS IS A FREE EVENT — however, you may opt to purchase a ticket to the pre-party ($30) or just come for the screening ($5 suggested donation).
Event presented by Libby Kirwin Real Estate
This event is a joint fundraiser to benefit newportFILM & Norman Bird Sanctuary
Post-film Q&A with producer & co-director Roger Kass
We are offering two options for the evening:
Starting at 6:30PM
Pre-party with appetizers courtesy of Glorious Affairs + Libations by SpikedSeltzer + Music by Honey Hollow + Tour the renovated Paradise Farmhouse + Sunset film screening
$30 ticket (purchase online or at the door)
– OR –
Starting at 7:45PM
Sunset film screening only
$5 suggested donation (donate at the door)
Rain Venue: Casino Theater, 9 Freebody Street, Newport
| Run time: | 78 minutes |
|---|---|
| Director: | Douglas Kass |
| Producer: | Roger Kass |
