A documentary by a group of Brown students that portrays pigeon enthusiasts in Ireland has been accepted into the prestigious Hamptons International Film Festival.
For one week last April, Daniel Murray '05 and Peter Russotti '05 traveled to Ireland and shot footage for a documentary on the popular practice of pigeon-racing. The final result of that week, a 10-minute short entitled "PigeonMen," which was produced by Josh Koplewicz '05, will be screened this weekend at the film festival in East Hampton, N.Y.
The film portrays a 110-mile race of homing pigeons back to their homes in the working-class town of Finglas, Ireland. Murray told The Herald that "pigeon-fancying" - the practice of breeding and racing homing pigeons - has existed in Ireland for over a century.
Pigeon-fancying is known as "the working man's horseracing," Murray said.
One woman in the film says, "It's our addiction; it's kind of a way of life."
Murray, a modern culture and media concentrator, said he was interested in making short films, and when Russotti heard about pigeon racing in Ireland, they decided to go and try to make a documentary.
"We didn't know anyone (in Ireland)," he said. "We just went for it."
"These people are very emotional about their pigeons, so it was an intense week shooting," he said.
The race depicted in "PigeonMen" is a route from Cork back to Finglas. The homing pigeons, which Murray said numbered around 1,000, are shown being driven overnight to Cork and let out at around 10 a.m. on a Saturday. Most of the birds are shown finding their way back to Finglas by Saturday afternoon.
One bird, Blue Paddy, arrives home to its distraught owner a full day late. The man holds up the bird to show the camera its blood-spattered wing and missing tail - injuries he attributes to a falcon or a hawk.
The owner becomes so upset because many pigeons that set out on a race never return home, Murray said. In one race from Paris to Dublin, he said, only one-10th of the pigeons are typically ever seen again.
The cock-pigeons are often deprived of any contact with hen-pigeons for two weeks before a race, Murray said. Then they are given a glimpse of the females, right before they are driven to the race's starting point.
"The idea is that they're going to fly home to have sex," Murray said.
Murray said he and several other students spent the summer trimming 30 hours of footage into a usable short.
"It's taken six months, almost, to do a 10-minute film which is in decent form," he said.
Murray said that he and his partners were surprised to win a spot in the competitive Hamptons film festival.
"This is really great - it's a good stepping stone," he said.
Murray and Russotti financed the film, which cost "more than a few thousand dollars" to make, Murray said.
Murray said he and Koplewicz have also started a production company, Salty Films, which is designed to "bring student filmmakers and writers together and help them produce their short films."
