The best documentary of the year so far. What starts as an interesting little story about a woman who has a lot of ducks unfurls into something big and meaningful and so, so moving. Each of the sides - Kathy the fowl hoarder, her exasperated husband Gary, the equally exasperated animal sanctuary people - is treated with respect and compassion. You know where they’re all coming from. You root for them all, even though they have conflicting interests. 
 
And the characters are great; Kathy’s country lawyer is worthy of his own spinoff. My heart just about burst when he started singing at the end. 

A really special film.

Beautifully wild from start to finish. I was not prepared for the amount of feels I experienced.

What I thought would be a chill doc ending up being one of the most tense & layered film experiences of the year
A wild, wonderful watch!

Gonna go give my chickens a big kiss on on each of their shitty little chicken lips after watching this.

Honestly didn't expect this film to be as riveting as it was. A small off-beat story somehow turns into something quite epic and profound. Still thinking about this one weeks later.

This woman needed some mental help- poor woman was just loving.

Basically Hoarders but with chickens. That's all you really need to know, because it never really rises above that. It never delves into the psychological "why" of Kathy's hoarding of chickens - as a result my interest came and went as frequently as the SPCA workers.

There are quite a few hard-to-watch scenes here involving cruelty to animals. This documentary is sure to divide a lot of viewers and asks questions like - do you sit on Kathy's side of the fence? or the animal rescue workers?

Kathy's love for her birds is clear, but whatever mental illnesses she is dealing with make this love somewhat misplaced. For The Birds manages to contain both tragedy (and somewhat) triumph, yet nothing here struck me as memorable.

Oddly, it's the second documentary about chickens I've seen this year. I'd recommend Pecking Order instead.

A study in insidious mental instability and exasperation. With chickens.

The film is not about birds. Beautiful and wonderfully paced exploration of aging, loneliness and caring.

The subject is one of the oddities on your local news. It's the revelations from it that Miron was able to extract like a trojan horse. Behind every event is a history, a story. It becomes the entire story of the Murphy's themselves where the fowl only become a metaphor of sorts to their very unique relationship and disintegration of time. It ends up revealing the frailty of love that is constructed through a series of events and unique characters of place. The actual story of the animals is completed three quarters in and the subsequent story becomes one of the most bittersweet passages on relationships and building some order out of chaos. An unexpected and hidden gem of a documentary worth seeking out.

Tf

Joe Exotic with wings and more mental health issues

what a crazy chicken person

I’ve been left heart broken. I’ve learnt about animal hoarding at uni and it’s so complex and awful for everyone involved. I think this documentary beautifully humanizes Kathy and shows how animal hoarding is an illness and how the stigmatization of it is so harmful. In the same regard it shows how complex the situation when everyone has the right intention - really makes you ponder. The sideplot of Kathy and Gary’s friendship is so special and touching also. And nothing beats the scene of the Lawyers Office - could honestly be a scene from The Office.

It isn’t about the birds.
This made me love, hate, sympathize and hope.

it is truly wonderful when kathy gets her new home and situation sorted. so sweet.

Two nights on the trot I've watched what I presumed would be chill documentaries about animals to sooth my mind after the current shit show the world has become and twice they ended up being bleak, depressing films.

I really need to start reading film descriptions before I press play.

I looooove an off-beat documentary but I didn’t expect this to be so moving. I felt empathy for everyone involved and even though Kathy was clearly in the wrong her heart was in the right place. I can’t get the image of the sad white chicken with the little pillow out of my head 😪

Changing my ringtone to a turkey call, hot or 
not?

Finished Tiger King??? I recommend giving For the Birds a try, especially if your going for the theme: people hoarding large amounts of animals...

The level of access they had for this doc is insane.