How to make a documentary, parrot fashion

"We do a lot of bad things to animals because we don't believe they feel anything," says Mark Bittner, who spent years making friends with the flock of wild parrots living on Telegraph Hill, San Francisco.

He sheds genuine tears when those of the flock he knows die from viruses or get gobbled up by hawks.

He's a kind of Bohemian St Francis, and Judy Irving's documentary is as much about him as it is about the parrots themselves, one of whom happily sways in time when he sings to it.

Charming and moving.

The Wild Parrots Of Telegraph Hill
Cert: U